By the Grace of God
“A 9/11 Survivor’s Story of Love, Hope, and Healing”
by
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World Trade Center, September 11, 2001, 8:46 AM …all of a sudden, a thunderous explosion, louder than anything I had ever heard, ripped through the building. It was 8:46:30. I was thrown out of my chair as the building swayed from side to side several times. The air was immediately filled with smoke and a terrible smell that I didn’t recognize. (It was only later that I learned it was jet fuel.) Tiles were falling from the ceiling, lights were swaying, and people were trying to regain their balance. I heard one of our associates yell, “Get to the staircase!” Of course, I knew immediately that something terrible had happened. Even so, the first thing that came to me was a voice saying, “This is not your time. We are with you. Your brother is with you.” And I knew he was with Dan, too. To this day, I don’t know exactly whose voice I heard at that moment. It may have been my angel, or a guiding spirit. It may even have been Jesus. What I do know is that it was loud and clear. And that whoever it was, he was with us, those of us who would survive, as well as those of us who were passing over….
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About the Book
For the most part, there was nothing particularly unusual about Jean Potter’s life. Going right to work after graduating from high school, she spent most of her career as an executive assistant in several large New York-based companies. In fact, she was working for the managing director of Bank of America in its offices on the eighty-first floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
By the Grace of God is Jean’s story—from her upbringing in Brooklyn, New York, to her jobs as assistant to several high-level executives, to her courtship and marriage to a New York City fireman, to setting up a home in Battery Park City, to that horrific day when she and her co-workers had to make their way down eighty-one flights of stairs in a desperate effort to escape the collapse of the North Tower. It’s the story, too, of her husband, Dan, seeing flames erupting from the World Trade Center, and racing from Staten Island to Manhattan determined to help her, but, recognizing his duty as a fireman, stopping to help others even while he anguished over his wife’s fate.
It’s also the story of the extraordinary effect living through that day had on both of their lives—having to cope with the effects of post traumatic stress disorder; moving because they could no longer live in a home haunted by three thousand ghosts; giving up their jobs, Jean because she could no longer bear working in New York City and Dan because he’d been hurt in the collapse of the South Tower; and having to leave the city they had grown up in and loved. Perhaps most important, By the Grace of God is the story of how their faith enabled them to come to terms with their experience and to find a new life of love, hope, and healing.
About the Author
Jean Potter is a native of Brooklyn, New York. Retired from her position at Bank of America, she and her husband, Dan, a retired New York City fireman, now live in Lords Valley, Pennsylvania, where they devote their time to volunteer activities and their families.
Rob Kaplan is the editor, author, or co-author of several books in a variety of fields, including A Passion for Books (with Harold Rabinowitz), Strategic Negotiation (with Brian J. Dietmeyer), and Helping the Addict You Love by Lawrence Westreich, M.D. He lives in Cortlandt Manor, New York.