I found Lisa to be so inspiring as she was able to speak about the tragedy she just suffered in front of cameras. Lisa was everywhere on TV talking about the tragedy. President George W. Bush even introduced Lisa Beamer to the country during his address to Congress on Sept. 20, 2001. Five months pregnant at the time of the attacks, Lisa Beamer came to represent all of the 9/11 widows grieving with dignity and strength. At the time she was pregnant with their 3rd child.
Even more inspiring was her husband Todd Beamer. Todd worked for the Oracle Corporation as a sales representative and traveled extensively. They had just returned from their vacation in Italy on September 10. Todd left early on the morning of September 11 and Lisa did not get to speak with him. He may have tried to call her from the plane because she did receive calls but no voices were there.
After the United Airlines Flight 93 was hijacked, Beamer and other passengers communicated with people on the ground with in-plane and cell phones, and they learned that the World Trade Center had been attacked using hijacked airplanes. Beamer tried to place a credit card call through a phone located on the back of a plane seat but was routed to a customer-service representative instead, who passed him on to GTE supervisor Lisa Jefferson. Beamer reported that one passenger was killed and, later, that a flight attendant had told him the pilot and co-pilot had been forced from the cockpit and may have been wounded. He was also on the phone when the plane made its turn in a southeasterly direction, a move that had him briefly panicking. Later, he told the operator that some of the plane's passengers were planning to "jump on" the hijackers and fly the plane into the ground before the hijackers' plan could be followed through. Beamer also recited The Lord's Prayer with Jefferson. According to Jefferson, Beamer's last audible words were "Are you guys ready? Let's roll." He was truly an American hero.
Lisa Beamer later went on to the create the Todd M. Beamer Foundation - an organization designed to help children who had lost their parents in the 9/11 attacks. In 2004 she changed the name to Heroic Choices and expanded the focus to help children who are rebounding from trauma, generally. We are not sure if this foundation is still in existence today, according to MSNBC the phone number is not in service. She has not been in the public as much since 2007 and some are accusing her of making money out of her husband's death. I would not like to think that way. She helped other widows cope with the tragedy of 9/11 and raised funds for other children of the 9/11 tragedy.
Her book starts "To Todd, my husband, my everyday hero, Thank you for loving God, loving us, and always playing hard. Thank you for teaching me patience and mercy. I love you and promise to finish our journey well. See you later..."
To learn more about the Beamers you can order her book at Amazon here in either paperback ($10.19) or in a kindle edition ($3.99). (I have no affiliation with Lisa or Amazon)
