The job offer came in on Sept. 6.
The employers called Friday and asked if he could be in New York on Monday.
Gary Bird made the flight reservations, arrived in New York City on Sunday, had an orientation on Monday and was at the World Trade Center for a meeting on Tuesday morning.
Gary was the sole Arizonan killed in the World Trade Center attacks.
Fast forward 10 years later and Gary’s wife, Donna Killoughey Bird, was telling her story — a life since her husband’s death — to roughly 60 people at Scottsdale’s Mustang Library.
It was another Tuesday — five days before the anniversary of her husband’s death.
“Try to see the world through the 9/11 lens again for a moment,” Donna said, addressing the crowd.
Rather than rehash her story, Donna said she would like to have an open dialogue with the audience.
“My goal is to help you recount your story,” she said.
As volunteers began to detail their experiences from 9/11, the atmosphere in the room became permeated with pain that had yet to expire a decade after the events. Some tried to hold back tears as they recounted that day.
“How are we all connected?” Donna asked. “And how can we stay connected between these anniversaries?”
She posed the question not just to the audience, but also to society.
Scattered answers came from the crowd about treating others with kindness, love and compassion, regardless of socio-economic backgrounds, race or ethnicity.
This was the point Donna said she had been trying to convey.
In moments of deep sorrow, “differences collapse and we become one,” Donna said. “Try to get back to that; try to get in touch with that.”
In February 2010, Donna began working on a book about how she and her children have coped with their loss. “Nothing Will Separate Us” was released Sunday and is available through Amazon and at the Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe.
Donna said the idea for writing the book came after an ASU professor interviewed her in 2005 regarding a 9/11 memorial. The professor told her there was a lack of conversation about the events of 9/11 and how to move forward because society doesn’t know how to talk about it.
“That really struck my heart,” she said.
In a later interview, Donna said writing the book has helped her heal.
Linda Vogel, who went to law school at ASU with Donna, said it was clear how much the couple loved each other.
“They exuded love,” she said, adding that people could feel their connection in their presence.
Donna said the death of Osama bin Laden did not affect her closure concerning her husband’s murder.
“I was disassociated with wishing he were dead,” she said. “On the other hand, I was joyful because so many were gathering together again and celebrating that oneness, that connection.”
Donna said she harbors no anger against the people who killed her husband and desires no retribution.
The speech, given on Tuesday, was the kickoff to a larger program called Cross Cultural Communications Series, sponsored by the city of Scottsdale’s Human Relations Commission and the Scottsdale Public Library System.
Despite the painful nature of the conversation, Scottsdale Libraries spokeswoman Ann Porter said Donna’s speech would help engender discussion about where we are going and how we have changed as a country in the years following 9/11.
Donna is scheduled to speak again on Sept. 15 at the Scottsdale Civic Center Library at 6 p.m.
Donna said what she knows now, and didn’t know before the 9/11 attacks is one thing: “I can survive.”
Reach the reporter at lghuffer@asu.edu
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