Rescue 5’s Loss Hits Home

Gary Friedman’s photo essay (“The Long Year of Rescue 5,” Sept. 1) was moving and timely, and it brought home the horror of Sept. 11, 2001. As someone who was born and raised on Staten Island, I felt this was a tribute to those who perished from my hometown. I watched the towers fall from 3,000 miles away and was hysterical, not knowing where my family and friends were. I may or may not have known those men, but I know the sorrow. They were my brothers, and it easily could have been my blood.

Miriam Garber

Los Angeles

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Friedman’s moving pictures brought to life the enduring tragedy of Sept. 11. On Sept. 10, 1985, my wife and I shared in the joy of the birth of the third of our five biological children. On Sept. 4, 1995, we lost him swiftly to a brain tumor. The month of September and the number 5 are painfully significant to our family--and so, it now seems, to our country. Still, as Friedman writes, we are “starting to smile again,” and that is great hope for the bereaved families and this nation.

Jesse Miranda III

La Mirada