September 11

 I am 50% Italian. 25% Scottish and 25% Latvian. My children are 100% Minnesotan. Their mother is 100% New York. We are all 100% Americans.  And we all are citizens of the world.  I cook a lot of pasta but detour into cold noodles with sesame sauce. I chronicle what I cook and eat. And how I feel during my cooking journey. And I reflect how food, family and friends form a fabric of your life. Today is not a cooking day but one of reflection. Of friends and family. Of country. Of the day. Of remembrance.

"The Trade Centers - in time - became a presence. It was how I gave directions when I lived in the Village. "Come up out of the subway at 14th Street, look at the towers and follow them downtown two blocks. Then take a right and you are at my building." They were supposed to always be there. On the day of the attacks, I finally reached my cousin. "Pati, I know people in that building." She said, "Dorrie everyone knows someone in those buildings."

 "This came to be. During the evacuation. Cantor Fitzgerald - where they were all "lost." I just thought - someone was holding this a few minutes before it floated down to me and I grabbed it. I take it everywhere. I don't know why."

 "It's surreal. When we were evacuating, all I could think of was - we must be in a movie - with amazing special effects. Because nothing this horrible could be real."

"You should have seen my mother - when I asked if we could visit each other's religion. She had tears. She never has tears. It's like all the tears were cried out of her a long time ago - in the camps. She said, "Oh Lanie - imagine if everyone visited other religious services. There wouldn't be so much hate."

(They light the candles)

"Do you know what this means, Dorrie? We're spirit sisters. So if anything ever happens to one of us, we have to be there for each other. And if we disappear, we have to look for each other, okay?"

"What are you talking about? That stuff can't happen here. We are the land of the free and the brave."

 "Do you have a guardian angel, Dorrie"

I do, Lanie. You're my guardian angel."

In memory of Lanie, April 21 - September 11, 2001. Godspeed Lanie, you light my way.

Excerpts from By Candlelight.
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." - Anne Frank