Irene Golinski watched television in her Columbia home as the first of the terrorist-controlled passenger planes crashed into the 92nd floor of the 110-floor North Tower of the World Trade Center. She immediately thought of her husband, Ron, who was working at the Pentagon.
She called and told him to come home, but the military veteran of 36 years assured her that there was nothing to worry about.
They talked for a few more minutes, both watching TV reports when the second plane crashed into the 81st floor of the South Tower in downtown Manhattan.
About the same time, shortly after 9 a.m., Baltimore flight attendant Renee May phoned her mother in Las Vegas from a cell phone in the back of another plane ? American Airlines Flight 77. It was en route from Washington to Los Angeles but was being hijacked by six men, who had forced everyone to the rear of the aircraft.
Nancy May did as Renee requested, informing her dad and dialing American Airlines officials, who already were aware of problems aboard the plane, which had now turned back East: destination Pentagon.
Irene Golinski continued to talk to her husband as they watched the drama unfold in New York. Then suddenly, the phone went dead.
A news flash on TV screamed the bad news: A plane had just crashed into the Pentagon.
For Americans, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, are a defining moment in history. For the families and friends of the nearly 3,000 people who were killed, it will remain a heartache of immeasurable pain forever.
But despite the near daily reminders of that day?stragic violence, those who knew and loved the victims of Sept. 11 have found some relief by focusing on the lives their friends and loved ones lived and the affection and joy that defined who they were. They prefer not to dwell on Sept. 11, but instead the days before the attack. Those days remain frozen in time.
Here are a few of their stories.
Renee May
?She had beautiful, blue eyes?
“I saw Renee the day before she was killed, Monday, the 10th, at docent training,” said John Shields, manager of the Walters Art Museum?s Docent and Internship Program. “It was a ?Welcome Back? after the summer for everyone, and it was so good to see her.
“Renee was very gentle and, in many ways a gentle, child-like person,” Shields added. “She was the type of person you immediately felt comfortable around.”
May completed the Walters? rigorous training program in 1997 and often walked from her Federal Hill row house to the museum to serve as a guide for school children on field trips.
“Most of the docents are retired, older than Renee, and the kids loved her. To them she was the blonde one, the young one,” Shields said.
The fifth annual Renee May Lecture: Why Art Education Matters will be tonight at 6:30 at the Walters Museum and is free and open to the public.
Born near Buffalo, May and her family moved to San Diego, where she graduated from Toro High School in Orange County in 1979. After becoming a flight attendant, she eventually moved to Federal Hill in south Baltimore. She is survived by her mother, Nancy, her father, Ronald, and brothers Jeffrey and Kenneth. She was also godmother to high school best friend Wendy Worden?s two children, Brittany and Brandon. Her uncle, Andrew Mantione of Orchard Park, N.Y., said his niece would often drop everything to fly home when his children had something special going on atschool.
“She was everything to me, my best friend, my maid-of-honor, the first to know I was pregnant with my oldest child. She was wonderful and had a lot to give to the world,” Worden said.
“Renee loved the kids in her neighborhood, too, and they loved her back,” Mantione said. “After her service, when we came back, all the kids had written cards and put flowers and gifts in front of her house.”
Fiance David Spivock said he had proposed to her a month before the attacks. “She had beautiful, blue eyes,” Spivock said. “She was so alive. She did a lot of charity work and was the nicest person I?ve ever met.”
Michele Heidenberger
?A daughter?s bond?’
Michele Heidenberger spent the day before she was killed with her family, celebrating daughter Allison?s 20th birthday.
“Allison was a junior at Loyola College then,” said her father, Thomas Heidenberger. “Earlier this year, Allison got engaged, and she came running to tell me that her boyfriend popped the question. Pretty soon we were both crying because her mom wasn?t there.
“And she won?t be there at the wedding, of course,” Heidenberger continued. “A daughter?s bond with her mother is not something that can be replaced.”
Michele?s other child, Tom, who is in college near Philadelphia, was 14 and attending Gonzaga High in Washington when news of attacks shook the city.
“A neighbor of mine came over to the house and told me that afternoon that Michele was on one of the planes,” Thomas Heidenberger said. “What can you do? You have to pull yourself together for your children.”
Michele Heidenberger, like her crewmate Renee May, donated much of her free time as a volunteer. She gave hours delivering meals to home-bound seniors and helping out at St. Ann?s Infant and Maternity Home in Hyattsville, a refuge for needy women and children.
Her sisters, Suzanne Bennett and Karen Denino, who still live near their mother, Mary MacDonald, in Windsor, Conn., where Michele grew up, said Michele?s compassionate streak goes back a long way.
“When she was a teenager she was part of a Big Sister program, and she used to go into what I thought was a rough part of Hartford to pick up her little sister. She?d bring her to spend the weekend with us. I?ll never forget that. She did it completely on her own,” Karen Denino said.
Ron Golinski
?It?s heartbreaking?
The Golinski family waited an agonizing month before the Department of Defense confirmed that Ronald Golinski had died in the attack on the Pentagon.
On Nov. 16, 2001, they were informed that there were no remains of his body.
“There is absolutely no closure, so going to Arlington and just seeing a headstone and just knowing there is nothing there ? it?s heartbreaking,” said his daughter Amanda, 25. She said this brings constant grief to her mother, Irene, and her sisters Marcellia and Sara.
Golinski was working as a civilian employee of the Army after a two-year-break. He had retired as a colonel with 36 years under his belt.
His death came after a week of happiness in the Golinski family. Oldest daughter Marcellia, now 27, was married on Sept. 2. Ron took the day off from work Sept. 10 to run errands with his wife, which included taking Marcellia?s wedding dress to the dry cleaners.
An avid golfer, Ron loved his 6:15 Saturday morning tee times. After playing a few rounds, he would head home to tend to his lawn.
“Every day after work he would come home and water his grass, but it never really grew,” Amanda said.
One of Ron?s favorite things was to take visiting family members ? most of whom reside in New York ? to historical landmarks around Washington and Maryland.
“When we first moved here, he took me to Mount Vernon, and I remember him telling me about George Washington?s wooden teeth and how he died of strep throat,” Amanda said. “The Inner Harbor, Fort McHenry, the monuments. I?ve been to those places a thousand times.”
Kris Romeo Bishundat
?Every day is difficult?
He was a Navy man, but family members say it was the way Kris Romeo Bishundat lived his life that made him a hero.
He loved the movie “Pay it Forward” ? the story of a young man who performs random acts of kindness for strangers.
“That was his philosophy,” said his sister Devita Bishundat, 22.
When Romeo drove through a toll both, he would pay the next person?s toll. If he saw someone who looked lonely, he would talk to them.
After Sept. 11, the Bishundat family received a call from an elderly woman who told them Romeo bought her a drink and chatted with her for hours at an Outback Steak House.
“She said he offered to take her for a ride in his Jeep,” Devita said.
Romeo?s black Jeep Wrangler was his most treasured possession. “That was his baby,” his sister said.
He also loved to surf and sky dive.
“He was very much a risk-taker and wanted to get the fullest out of each day possible,” Devita said.
That?s partly why he enlisted in the Navy just two days before his 18th birthday. Natives of Guyana, Romeo?s family moved to Waldorf when he was just 2 years old. He thought about joining the Navy in high school, and his mother encouraged
him.
“Coming from a different country, I thought it would be a very good thing for him,” said his mother, Basmattie.
In May 2001, Romeo was assigned to the Chief Naval Operations Center at the Pentagon inthe communications division as a petty officer second class.
Three weeks before Sept. 11 he moved into a newly renovated office for his information systems job.
He called home on Sept. 11 at about 8:30 a.m. His sister Danita, now 25, had packed him a lunch and left a note inside. He wanted to thank her.
Romeo died just three days before his 24th birthday.
“Every day is difficult, when you think of how many years have passed by without him,” Basmattie said.
Marylanders who lost their lives in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
AT THE PENTAGON
(Retired) Master Sgt. Max J. Beilke, 69, Laurel.
civilian employee, U.S. Army
Kris Romeo Bishundat, 23, Waldorf.
information systems technician second class, U.S. Navy
Carrie R. Blagburn, 48, Temple Hills.
civilian budget analyst, U.S. Army
Donna Bowen, 42, Waldorf.
Pentagon communications representative, Verizon
Angelene C. Carter, 51, Forrestville.
accountant, U.S. Army
Sharon A. Carver, 38, Waldorf.
civilian employee, U.S. Army
Julian T. Cooper, 39, Springdale.
Navy contractor
Ada M. Davis, 57, Camp Springs.
civilian employee, U.S. Army
Gerald P. Fisher, 57, Potomac.
consultant, Booz-Allen & Hamilton Inc.
Sandra N. Foster, 41, Clinton.
civilian employee, Defense Department
Cortez Ghee, 54, Reisterstown.
civilian employee, U.S. Army
Ron F. Golinski, 60, Columbia.
civilian employee, U.S. Army
Sheila M. S. Hein, 51, University Park.
budget and management specialist, U.S. Army
Jimmie Ira Holley, 54, Lanham.
civilian accountant,U.S. Army
Angela M. Houtz, 27, La Plata.
civilian employee, U.S. Navy
Samantha L. Lightbourn-Allen, 36, Hillside.
budget analyst, U.S. Army
Shelley A. Marshall, 37, Marbury.
budget analyst, Defense Intelligence Agency
Gerard (Jerry) P. Moran, 39, Upper Marlboro.
engineering contractor, U.S. Navy
Odessa V. Morris, 54, Upper Marlboro.
budget analyst, U.S. Army
Teddington H. Moy, 48, Silver Spring.
civilian employee, U.S. Army
Lt. J.G. Darin Howard Pontell, 26, Columbia.
U.S. Navy
Scott Powell, 35, Silver Spring.
BTG Inc.
Cecelia E. Richard, 41, Fort Washington.
accounting technician, U.S. Army
Robert E. Russell, 52, Oxon Hill.
civilian budgetary supervisor, U.S. Army
William R. Ruth, 57, Mount Airy.
Chief Warrant Officer 4th Class, U.S. Army
Antionette M. Sherman, 35, Forest Heights.
budget analyst, U.S. Army
Patricia J. Statz, 41, Takoma Park.
civilian employee, U.S. Army
Willie Q. Troy, 51, Aberdeen.
program analyst, U.S. Army
Ernest M. Willcher, 62, North Potomac.
Booz-Allen & Hamilton Inc.
Marvin R. Woods, 57, Great Mills.
civilian communications manager, U.S. Navy
Edmond G. Young, 22, Owings.
information technology specialist, BTG Inc.
Lisa L. Young, 36, Germantown.
civilian employee, U.S. Army
ON UNITED FLIGHT 93
(which crashed into a field near Shankville, Pa.)
Honor Elizabeth Wainio, 27, Baltimore.
district manager, Discovery Channel stores
ON AMERICAN FLIGHT 77
(which crashed into the Pentagon)
William E. Caswell, 54, Silver Spring.
physicist, U.S. Navy
Sara M. Clark, 65, Columbia.
sixth-grade teacher, Backus Middle School (Washington)
James Daniel Debeuneure, 58, Upper Marlboro.
fifth-grade teacher, Ketcham Elementary School (Washington)
Charles S. Falkenberg, 45, University Park.
research director, ECOlogic Corp.
Dana Falkenberg, 3, University Park.
Zoe Falkenberg, 8, University Park.
Ian J. Gray, 55, Columbia.
president, McBee Associates
Michele M. Heidenberger, 57, Chevy Chase.
flight attendant, American Airlines
Renee A. May, 39, Baltimore.
flight attendant, American Airlines
Todd H. Reuben, 40, Potomac.
tax and business lawyer, Venable, Baetjer, Howard & Civiletti
Hilda E. Taylor, 62, Forestville.
sixth-grade teacher, Leckie Elementary School (Washington)
Leslie A. Whittington, 45, University Park.
professor, Georgetown University
John D. Yamnicky, 71, Waldorf.
defense contractor, Veridian Corp.
AT THE WORLD TRADE CENTER
Wayne Terrial Davis, 29, Fort Meade.
Callixa
Joseph Maggitti, 47, Abingdon.
Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc.
Daniel McNeal, 29, Towson.
vice president, equity research, Sandler O’Neill & Partners
Christopher W. Murphy, 35, Easton.
senior research analyst, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods
Source: Associated Press
