Every year, newspapers fill with remembrances of Sept. 11. It’s
been the subject of movies and books, and more than one monument is
in the works. The event, pundits say, was a national tragedy. But
for Hollister couple Carol and Bill Heiderich, the loss is more
personal and more palpable.
HOLLISTER
Every year, newspapers fill with remembrances of Sept. 11. It’s been the subject of movies and books, and more than one monument is in the works. The event, pundits say, was a national tragedy. But for Hollister couple Carol and Bill Heiderich, the loss is more personal and more palpable.
“There’s 9/11, and then there’s the fact that Jason won’t be here for Christmas,” Bill Heiderich said in a Free Lance interview last week.
“Jason” is Jason Dahl, Carol Heiderich’s brother and the pilot of United Airlines Flight 93.
It’s been more than six years since Dahl’s death, but Carol Heiderich said the grief hasn’t dissipated. She still reacts whenever anyone mentions Sept. 11.
“It’s kind of an immediate jolt,” she said.
As a result, the Heiderichs said they’ve come to think of Sept. 11 as two separate events – a national tragedy, and a personal loss.
“We’re trying to keep perspective, too,” Bill Heiderich said. “There are thousands of families that lost loved ones.”
The two tragedies came together earlier this month, with the dedication of the San Francisco Bay Area Flight 93 Memorial in Union City. There are plans for a national memorial in Shanksville, Pa., where the plane crashed, but Carol Heiderich noted that Union City is a lot closer to home.
“It hammers home that it really happened, that we were connected to this enormous event,” Bill Heiderich said.
The memorial includes 40 stones, each commemorating one of the passengers. At the dedication, Carol Heiderich walked among the stones and was struck by “how young most of the people were on that flight.”
Dahl would have turned 50 this year, she said.
Hayward Hills resident Michael L. Emerson, who worked for more than five years to make the memorial a reality, said the early deaths are part of the memorial’s careful symbolism.
“The back and sides of each stone was left unfinished, which symbolizes that they had unfinished lives,” he said. “We used 40 separate stones, because we wanted to show them as individual people.”
Emerson described the passengers of United 93 as heroes because they fought their hijackers, leading to the plane’s crash.
“They were the first ones to really stand up and show the mettle of America,” he said.
Emerson isn’t the first person to see the flight and its passengers that way. In fact, they have also been memorialized in a film, “United 93.”
Director Paul Greengrass did a wonderful job depicting her brother, Carol Heiderich said. When she met the actor who played Dahl at the movie’s premiere, she found the resemblance “uncanny.”
The Heiderichs added that one moment early in the film – when he says “okiedoke” before taking off – encapsulated Dahl’s personality.
“To him, it was the best job in the world, but he was always breaking that kind of professional barrier,” Bill Heiderich said.
Those on United 93 were likely heroes, the Heiderichs said, but that fact hasn’t helped with their grief.
“What I tell people is, hero or victim, the loss is still the same,” Bill Heiderich said. “But we know Jason did everything he could when he was alive.”
The Heiderichs also said the Hollister community was incredibly supportive after Dahl’s death. Neighbors did everything from writing consoling cards to offering to look after their house while the Heiderichs were staying with family in San Jose.
“It sounds corny, but it has become almost fascinating, how sincere and nice people are,” Bill Heiderich said.
The entire nation has been supportive of the United 93 memorial, too, Emerson said. The project would have cost an estimated $1.5 million, but almost all the material and labor were donated.
Donors also contributed more than $30,000 in cash, he said. Only $2,000 was needed, so the remaining money has been placed in a trust to maintain the memorial.
Carol Heiderich said one of her favorite memories of Dahl came shortly before his death.
In July 2001, the Heiderichs’ son Tim graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, and they assumed Dahl wouldn’t be able to make it. But Dahl flew in at the last minute, offering a cab driver a $100 tip to rush him to the ceremony, and he arrived just before Tim walked across the stage.
“That’s the kind of person Jason was,” Bill Heiderich said. “When he was alive, that was the single phone number I kept in case we needed anything.”
There are lingering regrets, too. Although Dahl took Carol Heiderich up on flights, she never had a chance to fly with him commercially. And in the months before Sept. 11, Dahl kept asking the Heiderichs to visit him in Colorado.
“I kept saying, ‘We’ll come, we’ll come, we’ll come,’ but we never got a chance,” Carol Heiderich said.
Her husband added: “That’s one of the things that’s changed. We don’t leave anything undone anymore.”
SF Bay Area memorial
For more information about the San Francisco Bay Area Flight 93 Memorial, visit www.93memorial.com. While at the Web site, you can also donate to the national memorial, or to the maintenance of the Bay Area memorial.
