I’ve come a long way from where I was 10 years ago. When I think about that day and what has happened since, I often think of what Joseph said to his brothers, “You meant evil against me but God meant it for good.”
Even before September 11, I was haunted by a recurring nightmare. I could hear someone speaking to me, but I couldn’t see who it was. Someone who kept saying, “You’re not doing what you’re supposed to do, Stanley.”
I narrowly escaped from the 81st floor of the World Trade Center where I was an investment banker, thanks in no small part to Brian Clark, who didn’t know me, yet stopped to help me on his way down from his office three floors above.
Later, I went around the country speaking to church groups, telling my story. I was in Springfield, Missouri, when I had the nightmare again. I met with a pastor the next day and he noticed that I was upset. I told him about my nightmares.
“May I pray for you?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” I said.
He laid his hands on my head and prayed. In that moment it was like someone flipped a light on in my soul. I suddenly knew what I had to do.
I enrolled in Global University, an online Bible college. I read the Bible and my course books when I got home from work, studying every night from 9:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. A year later, I finished the program. I’m now a fully certified minister.
I still work as an investment banker but for a different bank. It grew too difficult to go back to the office with so many friends gone. The very first day I sent out my résumé, I got a call from a man I’d worked with a decade earlier, who now was a director for Royal Bank of Scotland.
“I thought you died,” he said.
“No,” I told him. “I lived. Thank the Lord. I lived.” I got the job.
My wife, Jennifer, and I hardly talk about what happened. Lot’s wife looked back; I believe in looking forward. There’s a lot to look forward to these days, a lot to be grateful for. My daughter Stephanie is 18 now, and is going to St. Francis College. She hopes to become a school teacher one day.
My little one, Caitlin, is 14 and starting high school this year. We’ve all grown much closer since 9/11. I know now to spend less time at work and more time enjoying my family.
Brian and I—we’re brothers for life. This year, on September 11, we’ll get together at my church in Ozone Park, New York, and tell the congregation about what God did for us 10 years ago. I plan to bring the shoes I wore to work that day.
The soles are melted and they’re caked in ash. I keep them in a shoebox with the word “deliverance” written all around it. They’re kind of like my ark, a reminder of God’s presence and the life I owe to him.
