Today marks the seventh anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks on America.

My wife, Susan, and I lived in New York City on 9/11. We heard the first airplane roar down Broadway, we both looked at each other, we knew there was something wrong.

One hears lots of sounds in the City but one of them is not a screaming jet.

On September 11, 2001, there is no place on earth I would have rather been than New York City and no place I had rather been far away from. As soon as we heard that an airplane had hit the World Trade Center, I called my mom and dad to let them know that we were all right. It was not unusual for Susan or me to be at the World Trade Center, as a matter of fact we had an appointment there at 8:30 two days later on the thirteenth. We shared attorneys who offices were on the 85th floor of Tower Two, which is where the second plane hit. Our attorney was killed that morning and her parents buried an empty coffin in her honor.

The horror that unfolded that day is something most Americans are aware of in some measure of detail. For those of us who were eyewitnesses perhaps there is more we can and should tell about what we saw and felt that day. Then again, perhaps we should let it rest. When the first plane crashed into the Trade Center, I told Susan I was going down there, she looked at me as if I had lost my mind. You are not going anywhere, mister. Yes, I am. We have people down there. I know she said but I have my people right here. First off , the police are not going to let you down there and if somehow you manage to get past them you will, at best, be in the way and, at worst, get yourself hurt or killed. Lastly, you will have to walk through me to go there so you better find something else to do with yourself.

That was her showing me her love, love, love, love, to quote The Beatles.

Of course they also sang, “All you need is love.”

Well, maybe in utopia, but not in a capitalist society.

We all need some money, shelter, food and health insurance.

But it is love that gives our life its greatest rewards.

On 9/11, in the few minutes before the phones stopped working, we reached out to the ones we loved, to first see if they were okay and then to assure them we were safe and that we loved them.

Of the many thousands of calls made from the WTC that day, there is no doubt that people were not calling their stockbroker but they were calling the ones they loved.

At the end of life, it is the people we love and who love us that we want to have near us, not our works or wealth.

For a year after 9/11 we soldiered on in New York but our hearts and our city were badly damaged.

Our dreams before the attack seemed unimportant when stacked beside the real awareness of how short life really is.

Someone once asked Billy Graham what he had found most amazing about life?

He answered, “Its brevity.”

So one evening, we sat in our living room looking out at the Manhattan skyline and decided we would leave our city behind. We thought of moving to Vermont or even northern France.

But finally knew the greatest spot on earth for us to heal was Susan’s family farm in Alabama. A beautiful spot of earth where four generations of loving people had lived and died before us.

During the last seven years Susan and I spent five of those taking care of our aging parents. They are all gone now. We sometimes feel the pain of being motherless and fatherless children.

We did not know what we intended to do after we left New York, we certainly did not know that we would continue to live in Alabama or come to love Pell City and St. Clair County so much. Making a permanent home in Alabama was something we thought was far in our future, perhaps to come with retirement. But here we are and here we intend to stay. This is mostly due to the love and friendship we have found in Pell City, in a real sense the community has adopted us. Like two orphans who lost their way after 9/11, we now feel found. I am not one that thinks I am special enough to deserve any divine propose, even if I might pray I would. All I am sure of it that each day I have a duty, as we all do, to live with purpose, conviction and the desire to make my small part of the world a better place. The experience of 9/11 taught me a lot of things; mainly it taught me that life is short, so, live, love and give. Everything changed for the Britt family that clear September morning, we changed. Thanks to the people here we feel like we have a place, a home and dear people with whom to share our brief time on earth.