Rev. Alberto Tamayo, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua church leads the Red Bank 9/11 Memorial Service in an opening prayer. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
In the 23 years since he walked down 71 flights of stairs to escape the World Trade Center attacks – and the 22 and a half years since he died – Ellie Tava had never publicly told her father-in-law’s story before.
The story of how Paul Tava, quietly suffering from terminal cancer himself, watched as injured victims were carried past him down the stairwells of Tower One. And the way he heard the echoes of people saying “God bless you” and “we’re praying for you” to the firefighters heading up those stairs.
“That’s what they heard as they were marching up,” Ellie Tava said. “For some it was the final words they heard.”
Ellie Tava, president of the Rotary Club of Red Bank, read her father-in-law’s account for the first time publicly at Red Bank’s annual Sept. 11 Memorial at Riverside Gardens Park Wednesday. At times, she fought back tears. Others, standing in the grass under deep blue skies reminiscent of that horrible day, dabbed their eyes as she spoke.
Ellie Tava, president of the Rotary Club of Red Bank, reads her father in law’s account of escaping the World Trade Center on 9/11. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
Paul Tava, an electrical engineer with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey who lived in Monmouth Junction, penned his remembrances of Sept. 11, 2001 before he succumbed to cancer six months later.
He was in a staff meeting on the 71st floor, he wrote, when the first plane struck the building in the terrorist attack. Due to his cancer, his lungs were operating at just ten percent capacity when he descended the stairs. On the street, he searched for shelter as the towers fell and a cloud of dust and debris consumed Lower Manhattan
“Trying door after door after door, we finally found one that opened,” Ellie Tava said, reading her father-in-law’s account. “It was Kelly’s Bar. There were only eight people in the bar and we had all escaped the cloud.”
“Some of you know, once again, God has blessed me,” Paul Tava wrote of his escape.
Tava’s story was yet another reminder the impact 9/11 had, and still has, on lives in and around Red Bank. The annual ceremony had no shortage of others, including the tolling of the bell and moment of silence for borough residents Brendan Lang and Liberty Hose volunteer firefighter Mark Hemschoot who perished in the attack.
“Both were my friends,” said Red Bank Fire Department Chief Bobby Holiday.
The event was hosted by the Red Bank Elks Lodge #233, located next door to the park. Scroll down for more photos of the ceremony.
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.
