CALASIAO– “It’s a relief,” Maureen Roy-Yson,37 says of the killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.
But this survivor of the terroristic attack on the World Trade Center because of a “forgotten basket of apples,” said “we cannot be complacent as his (Bin Laden) followers could be lurking just around the corner, ready to attack again.”
“There is plenty of celebration on the streets of New York now. Everyone is happy. I hope it is really the end of terrorism. But I know that everyone knows we cannot really be completely sure of our security,” she told the Inquirer through a telephone interview.
Her father Manuel Roy, 60, said the terrorists’ leader’s death brought justice to the victims of the terroristic act on September 11, 2001.
“Even those whose family members who survived the attack are happy. They won’t fear anymore that similar tragedies could occur. But America should still be careful as some of his successor may retaliate,” Manuel Roy, 60, said.
Roy-Yson , who worked for a law firm owned by Filipino lawyers at the 18th floor of one of the twin towers, was saved by basket of apple which she forgot and for which she returned to her house, in the early morning of Monday, more than ten years ago.
The day before the attack, the family went apple picking in an orchard and she said decided to bring some fruits for her workmates. She put them in a basket ready for the following day.
But the rush of the morning made her forget the basket. She was already near the bus stop when she realized she left it home in New Jersey.
“So I went back to get the basket, and missed the bus that I took every morning. I had to wait for the next bus going to the subway station. I missed my train so I delayed in going to the office,” she told the Inquirer in a telephone interview.
Roy-Yson usually arrived before her workmates every morning do, getting there at quarter to eight in the morning. If not for the forgotten basket of apples, she would have been at her office when the world’s tallest buildings were attacked. A co-worker, a Filipino lawyer, who also used to come early, was also late that morning and was also spared from death.
But ten years after the tragedy, Roy Yson have not completely shaken off the “ashes” off her memory and refused to go at Ground Zero or nearby.
She recalled that when she emerged from the subway, “everyone was screaming.”
“I was about three blocks away from the World Trade Center when the second attack came. I saw the plane attacking, the bodies flying off the windows. I heard people screaming. It was all dusty around. It was really scary.The people started walking and we walked about 50 blocks, from 9th street to 67th street, until a bus fetched us and brought us to a hospital. My mind was blank. I was praying and thinking of was my one- year old daughter Martina. I had to be safe for her. I asked God to please let me survive or what would happen to her? ”
Her aunt worked at that hospital as a nurse, but in her confusion she was not able to recall her name.
“But I was lucky. Most of us brought to the hospital were wounded. My body was full of ashes but that was all,” Roy-Yson said.
The victims lined up for the pay telephones and she was able to call up her crying mother Aurora, to tell her she was alive.
It was a different matter for her father who was in the Philippines who had to endure for almost a day not knowing if her eldest daughter had died or not.
He said his brother, who saw the news on CNN, called him up, informing him of the tragedy. “I turned on the tv set and I was so worried because I had no idea on what happened to Maureen. I really thought she was gone. Communication lines were cut and there was no way for me to reach her and my wife. ”
When he finally was able to connect to his family, Roy said he could not contain his happiness.
Her daughter could not still bear going back to Ground Zero where memories of the fateful day flash back “like a movie on my mind.”
“When relatives and friends from the Philippines come here and ask to visit Ground Zero, I refuse to accompany them. I ask others to guide them,” she said.
But that experience taught her some lessons to “stay close to God.”
“I am not very religious but I have close relationship with God. I also keep close with my family because nobody knows when I will go. (America) is a very busy country and everyone is focused on their jobs. I think that should not be the case. We should spend more time with the family,” the mother of three said.