This Blog is in Memory

of

Bruce Edward Simmons, 41 Ridgewood, NJ

As I slowly gathered my research and worked on getting this blog ready I wrote and deleted over five different versions....you see I couldn't find a single one that I felt would do any justice to this man, his memory, or just the memory of that day. 

In the end I am doing what I do best when I can't find my own words, I am borrowing the words of others....I know this will not even begin to do justice to the life that was snuffed out that day or the lives of anyone affected but it is all I have and I offer it with all my heart.

Please forgive me.

A passage regarding his wife and his family and life:

After resisting the urge for five days to visit downtown New York where her husband, Bruce, was last seen before the World Trade Center collapsed, Kathy Simmons gathered her family by her side on Sunday and went into the city. "It was definitely horrible," she said. "But I wanted to be closer to where he was last." Bruce Simmons, 41, was a father of three and partner in the investment firm Sandler O'Neill. He was responsible for the firm's creation of its Chicago office several years ago and spent a lot of time there picking out the location and hiring many of its employees. A rabid Yankees fan, avid golfer, and his family's best cook, his wife said, Simmons also found time to coach his son's soccer team and serve on the board of directors for the Maroon Soccer Club. The Ridgewood, N.J., native was working on the 104th floor of the south tower when the first plane hit the north tower. "I'm going to be evacuated Kath. I'll call you when I get down to the street," he told his wife in his last call home after the first plane struck. "He was in charge of his equities desk. So he made sure everyone got out first," Kathy Simmons said. "As much as I miss him, I know he did everything right in the end."

Comments from people who had the honor of knowing him:

I knew him as Mr. Simmons. He was my soccer coach when it was my first year as a maroons player. He helped me to become a better player, and for that I thank him. My first game as a Maroons player, I scored because he told me what I should do. He was a really nice person and I am going to miss him. I was friends with his son Jack, and I knew it was hard on him after losing his father. I missed Bruce Simmons.

I was the second person to arrive at the food tent early in the morning of the Maroons soccer tournament. I asked the man working there if I could help. He handed me the keys to his Ford Expedition and asked me to go get the bagels and take some to BF and some to Vets field. When I returned and handed him his keys, he introduced himself as Bruce Simmons. We had never met. He didn't really know who I was when he let me have his car. He just needed a little help

As a boy growing up in Panther Valley some of my fondest memories were playing baseball,basketball, football or just hanging out with Bruce. The things that stands out the most was his gentle heart and great smile.

"A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved" -Sirens of Titan

The definition of a HERO is a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities....Bruce was just such a man, maybe not in the large ways that made the world sit up and take notice, but in the ways that matter, the people whose lives he touched and worked with know without a doubt that Bruce was and will always be a hero in their hearts and a true loss for the world.

And now my little commentary to try and make things a little more complete....

September 11th was and will always be a day of heartache, sorrow, loss and change, no one will ever be able to make that day different in our world, we cannot go back and erase it and make it better, but we can learn from it and move forward, with love, hope and understanding.

I don't think there is a single person in the world who doesn't remember what they were doing that day when the news broke.  I remember feeling like someone had ripped my heart out, I watched the news and listened to the radio with tears streaming down my face and a sick feeling in my heart.  So many lives, so many hearts, so much destruction...I suddenly felt so isolated and so changed. 

I know my feelings and thoughts are not noteworthy when you consider how many lives were directly effected, wives, husbands, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers....I can't even begin to imagine the pain and heartache in their lives still to this day.

An entire planet changed in the blink of an eye because of a few misguided souls....when you think about it, well it really is astounding.

I am going to leave you with a quote and a song....please take the time to read the quote a few times, it is profound and there is no other way to put it....I would love to hear your thoughts, what you were doing that day, even just how you feel when you think about it....Thank you

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it

- George Santayana