By Ernest Joseph – Written as Christmas letter 2001
Season’s greetings! May your holiday season be filled with Happiness and Joy.
It’s that time of the year again and Joseph family generic Christmas letter is in your hands! What a year it has been!
At times it seemed flying by, and after September 11th, it seems like a whole another year. Collectively, life has come back to normal in a way, but the “normal” is not same as September 10th and before.
September 11th started out to be a beautiful fall day, clear blue skies and temperature in mid 60’s F. I was at work in a meeting. As we came out a meeting around 10:00 AM, our secretary informed us that a plane had crashed into world trade center. Knowing that lower Manhattan is a no-fly zone, I thought it must be a small corporate plane gone astray and how ignorant of this pilot for not being able to avoid the tower.
Anju was at her work in Clifton, NJ, only few miles away from Manhattan and with clear view of the skyline. What we were watching on TV at work, Anju was witnessing it from her office roof top. At this point, we realized that almost everyone knew someone who worked at World Trade center.
Anju’s colleague Viki’s husband worked on 10th floor of the tower, but she could not reach him over the phone. When towers collapsed, she was hysterical, still unable to contact him. Fortunately, he was late getting to work and did not even make it to the subway station under the towers.
Sushil Solanki, a close friend of Ajay (Anju’s cousin) and a member of the bridal party at Ajay’s wedding, worked at Cantor Fitzgerald on 102nd floor and was not able to get out of the building. He leaves behind two children under 5 year’s age. Anita was at school and although students were informed about the terror, the school remained in full day session.
That evening, we had few fly-over visits from F-16 fighter planes which reminded me of being in Anand during 1970 war with Pakistan.
But we must also remember HIS blessings and focus on good things that has happened during the year.
Ami is now a sophomore and she seem to be getting serious about achieving her goals at University of Michigan. Although winter is longer and brings frequent snow due to great lake region, she has adopted to the place very well. She will be flying home on 20th for Christmas.
Anita is a freshman in high school, and in transition from parochial to public school system. She has made some friends and seems to have completed this transition smoothly. This will be her 10th year with Dance school and she has a lead role of Billy in the musical “42nd Street”.
Anju had an opportunity to visit her parent company Twinings in London, attending a seminar. Anju’s parents and other family members are all doing fine. Joy has passed her physician’s exam which will allow her to practice on her own.
Dadi, Dad and Mom are doing very well. Since Dadi’s arrival in NY, Sunday after church visit to their homes has become our routine. Dadi amuses us with stories from the past, and never fails to mention about 5 car accidents she was involved in, which of course is always the reason behind few aches and pains she suffers once in a while.
Since 1986, my running goal was to run Boston Marathon, which requires meeting strict qualifying times for the age group. Finally at Jersey shore marathon, I barely qualified for Boston by running 3:22:01 marathon (needed 3:25:00 or less). It was a great experience in April as I ran my first Boston.
If you would like to read more about it, please visit: http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/corprace/Essays.html.
Finally, we must have some Christmas Humor, so here it goes:
The 3 stages of man’s life:
During first stage, He believes in Santa Claus.
During second stage, He doesn’t believe in Santa Claus.
During third stage, He is Santa Claus.
Love Always,
Anju, Ernest, Amrita and Anita – Christmas 2001
Reflections on Running & Life 