Gerald Michael Olcott

(This post will remain at the top all week. Please see below for current posts. Life must go on!)

Several months ago Harmonica Man wrote in his blog about the 2,996 Project. The Project's objective is to memorialized the almost 3,000 victims of 9/11. You sign up and are assigned a victim. You are then asked to write about the person in your blog.

In Memoriam.


For months this has been in the back of my mind. How would I, could I possibly write about a person I did not know. Had never met. How could I possibly understand the level of grief and suffering his family and friends have waded through during the last five years? Not only did I feel unequal to the task but felt it would be presumptuous.

God works in mysterious ways. Over the last few weeks a new life has entered my family. Two friends of my family were in a terrible accident but survived. And a child of a friend's family passed away from leukemia.

These are the tides of life. Death, birth and redemption. All of which evoke fierce emotions. Joy. Pain. Sorrow. Gratitude. To shy away from any of them is a choice not to live life to its fullest.

So, here goes.


Gerald Michael Olcott was 55 years old on the morning of September 11th, 2001. I was 40 years old. My third sister had given birth to her first child on the 1st. I was pregnant with my fourth child.

He had been dropped off at the WTC by his son that morning. I was grocery shopping by myself for the first time in many years. My 3 year old son had started preschool that morning and my daughters were also at school. It was a thrilling occasion for me.

At check-out the clerk mentioned that a plane had hit the WTC in NYC. I thought she was joking. Gerald, a VP of claims for the insurance brokerage March McLennan, may have been at his desk. Or in a meeting. Day dreaming about playing golf. Or making a colleague laugh.

That night, I cooked dinner for my family. I was numb, as was much of the Nation. As was his family. He loved to cook for his family. We had that in common. When I cook I am cooking my love into the food. I am not just feeding their bodies but feeding their souls. Did he think along the same lines?

He also lived with joy. That was one of the bits of information that shone though in the scant information I was able to find about Gerald. He lived with joy. And I am trying hard to Live Joyously.

And he loved.

And I love.

As I sit at my computer in my comfortable home, sipping wine and watching my youngest play at my feet I am counting my blessings.

Gerald, my wish for your family is that they are living with joy.

Are you are smiling down from Heaven at a woman in Maine who has struggled with this task? Maybe you would be telling me to "lighten up"?

I wish that I had met you.

Rest in Peace.

(This post will stay at the top all week. Assuming that I can figure out how to do that. Are you chuckeling, Gerald?)