April 22, 2025 • 38 mins
On September 11th, Welles saved 12 of the only 18 survivors who were at or above the floors where the plane struck the World Traded Center’s South Tower. He’s known as “The Man In The Red Bandana”, because that’s what he wore that day and had with him every day since he was a young boy. His mother Alison pays tribute to her late son.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
There was a woman at his office. Wells always carried
his red bandana, put it on his office desk, and
she said to him one day, Wells, what is it
with that red bandana? Why are you carrying that red
bandana all the time? And Wells just smiled her and
picked it up and held it up and he said,
with this red bandana, I'm going to change the world.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'd believable.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yep, Eddie did, and he did and he is doing it.
And I say to young people, I said, don't let
anybody take your power away from you. Don't do that.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,
I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach an
inner City Memphis. And the last part it somehow it
led to an oscar for the film about our team.
That movie is called Undefeated. I believe our country's problems
(01:01):
just are never going to be solved by a bunch
of fancy people and nice soups using big words that
nobody ever uses on CNN and box for rather by
an army of normal folks. Guys, that's us, just you
and me deciding, hey, I can help, And that's exactly
what the late Wells Crowther did. On September eleventh, two
(01:25):
thousand and one. This twenty four year old saved twelve
of the only eighteen survivors who were at or above
the floors where the plane struck the World Trade Center
South Tower, and he could have escaped too, but he
was helping even more escape on the ground floor when
the tower collapsed on. Wells is known as the Man
(01:49):
and the Red Bandanna because that's what he wore that
day and had with him every day since he was
a young boy when his father gave him a red bandana.
Cannot wait for you to meet his mom, Allison, who
pays tribute to him. Right after these brief messages from
our general sponsors, everybody, something really cool about the Wells
(02:22):
Crowther interview is we did it in front of a
live audience, which we're starting to do more and more of.
But this particular episode was done at the Stand Together
Headquarters in Alexandria, Right, Arlington, Arlington, Well right basically DC
here all right, a Stand Together headquarters. They've got this
(02:43):
really awesome studio and Well's mother, Alison joined us there
in front of an audience, and it's a well produced
video as well, so in addition to all the other stuff,
we hope you'll check that out as well. But together,
if we stand together as an army in rmal folks
(03:03):
and just pretty amazing stuff. Hey, Ala, did you like that? Perfect?
All right? I think we got the stamp up approval
from Alo, so we're good. We're good today. Alison Crowther
(03:24):
I pronounced that correctly, Yes she did. Okay. Allison is
going to talk about her personal member of the army,
her son. She is from Nyack, New York, Upper Nyack,
New York, and Alison kind of tell us what Upper Nyack,
(03:44):
New York is. I picture, you know, I picture quintessential
town squares and Norman Rockwell paintings. But maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Well, thank you so much for inviting me here today.
I'm honored to be here and be able to talk
about my son. And Alex knows me from the past
and so deeply touched. Upper Nayak. It's maybe not what
you think. It's a really interesting community. It's very diverse.
The tiny little place that is the village of Upper Nayak.
(04:20):
It's a mile square approximately there's a mom and a
pop shop across the street. It's still called Hortels, but
not for long. It's finally being taken over after many,
many many years. And then the village hall and a
Empire Hook and Ladder fire company, and that's pretty much
it for Upper Nayak. We're close to the village of Nayak,
(04:42):
which is the town that you're sort of envisioning. Lots
of restaurants, it's kind of a hot spot. A lot
of people think it's like a little Greenwich village. I've
heard that before. Really, yes, yeah, But the Nayaks are
along the Hudson River.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
But there how far from New York City. Oh I
don't twenty miles? Oh no, not far at all. It's
Rockland County is at the western Nayak. The Nyaks are
at the western foot of the tap and See Bridge
now known as the Mario Cuomo Bridge.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Oh, but there are people that want to change it
back to the tap and See Bridge, And I heard
actual rumors at one point there was a judge that
wanted to rename it the Wells Crowther Bridge. But of
course there are too many families with nine to eleven,
you know, significant losses that that would ever happen. So,
but the tap and see bridge is what everybody really wants. Anyhow,
(05:37):
Nayak is a very diverse community. There are children that
grow up in projects in the middle of Nayak and
children that grow up in mansions along the Hudson River,
and there's everything in between, different socioeconomic levels, different religious, cultural,
racial backgrounds. And the wonderful part about that is that
(06:01):
respect for others is taught from a very early age,
from kindergarten on and even earlier programs. Professionals, we have
a lot of medical professionals, law professors, attorneys, you know, doctors, lawyers,
chiefs of industry and teachers and a lot of musicians
(06:23):
and artists are also in that area, which gives it
a wonderful a wonderful feel.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
It's a lot of culture.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yes, it's just a wonderful place to grow up.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
So you and your husband decided to make a family there,
and you have how many children.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Well, we have two daughters. We had three Wells of course,
and then two daughters. He was the oldest, and then
two daughters. Honor was two years younger than Wells and
very close. In fact, they were kind of competitive with
one another. Honor was a really fine athlete, and actually
she they all went to Boston College. Eventually she ended
up playing on the women varsity lacrosse team, and Wells
(07:02):
was on the men's lacrosse team. And then our younger daughter,
Page was trained in classical ballet and very fine dancer,
so she trained with Bolshak Russians and New York City
Ballet co people dancers, so really fine American ballet theater.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
It's a shame your children are such low achievers, I know.
So let's pick up your Your husband's name is Jefferson.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
He was named after Thomas Jefferson. His father was actually
a Southern boy. Grew up in Lutherville, Maryland, and then down.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
In Maryland as a Southern boy.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Oh okay, sorry, I beg your pardon. What did I
say your.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Dogg to a guy went to the University of Mississippi.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Oh boy, well, is North Carolina better? He was down
there too for many years.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Now North Carolina's fringe. It's all North Carolina got it.
South Carolina's getting down.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
But his father, Bosi Crowther, was film critic for The
New York Times for many, many years. For fourty years
legendary actually, and was credited with bringing modern film foreign
films to this country. So yeah, so he really was
also embraced history, and that's why he named his third
(08:20):
son Jefferson.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I watched a small documentary that ESPN did on Wells
and your family, and it didn't go into why, and
I'm curious. At a very young age, Wells ran around
with a red handkerchief in his back pocket riding his bike.
(08:46):
Just had a red handkerchief. It was a thing. And apparently, Jefferson,
your husband gave him a red can you I think
that's important in germane to what we're going to get into, obviously,
but what's the genesis of the red handkerchief?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Well, thank you for asking. It's actually pretty simple. My
husband always used to carry bandanas in his back pocket
for missy jobs and that sort of thing. And we
were getting dressed for church one morning. Wells was wearing
a little suit and my husband was a banker, so
we always had a white handkerchief in his in his
breast pocket and carried bandanas in his back pocket for
(09:26):
the messy jobs. So Wells, little Wells, who adored his father,
said Daddy, can I have a bandana. Oh no, can
I have a handkerchief like you have in your in
your pocket? So my husband went to gay he said, yes, Wells,
he goes to get one and pulls it out, and
he said, he just thought he'd get him a bandana also,
So he happened to grab a red one and he
(09:47):
put the folded up and put the white one in
Wells's chest pocket, his breast pocket, and said, now, Wells,
this is for show. Don't touch it. Just leave it
right there. It's folded nicely. Leave it. Here's a bandana
that's for blow, for messy jobs, to blow your nose
to whatever, and keep that in your back pocket. And
that's basically how it started. My husband kept the blue ones.
(10:10):
Wells typically had red ones, and that's how we told
them apart in the laundry.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So very simple, so very simple. And from a young age,
it's like neighbors knew that that kid was always going
to have a red yeah bandana his friends did.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
He always wore one under his helmet. It just became
a i don't know, maybe a talisman or some such.
It was his connection to his.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Father and that's very cool.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, it helped him. I think he felt like he
was a big you know, getting to be a big
man now because he had that white handkerchief and then
the bandana in the back.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
So was your husband Your husband's a banker, yes, And
your husband was on the volunteer fire force, yes he was.
And Wells worshiping his father the old bandana thing. He
grew an affinity for the volunteer fire department in Niak
as a result of his father's involvement. Am I getting
(11:09):
that part right?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Absolutely? Yes. My husband used to take when Wells was little,
seven eight nine years old. He was small for his age.
He didn't really grow to his full size until college.
So he would my husband would bring Wells down to
the firehouse and they'd have clean up on the truck,
and Wells would go into the little places to clean
(11:31):
up where the other big men couldn't go. It was
just a thing, and a lot of the firefighters who
had sons would bring them in and they consequently became
full members like Wells did. Our daughter Honor was the
first female member of Empire Hooking Ladder. Because there wasn't
anything that Wells was going to do that she couldn't
(11:51):
do better.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Right, so did so Wells actually became a real live
hook and ladder of fire. Yes he did, Yeah, at
what age.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Well, he joined as a junior member at the age
of sixteen and trained and went to the you know,
the fire training center and did all the training to
join the company, and then when he turned eighteen he
was a full fledged member.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
As a mom, were you ever worried your husband, your daughter,
your son, were I mean we ever were they were
going to get in trouble? No?
Speaker 1 (12:22):
No, because they they I mean injury. I guess it
is always possible, but they're very savvy about how and
well trained, and so it was not anything that that
really occurred to me, but really not. It was more well,
for example, Christmas morning, had the tree all set up,
(12:44):
the breakfast, the brunch maid, the presence under the tree
ready to and the fire alarm went off and out
they go, and it was like really and it was
a big fire, real big fire that had happened down
and so yeah, things like that.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
But in a town like nac if you don't have
people like your daughter, your husband in Wells, there's nobody
coming to answer that.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
All right, that's right, and it's all Rockland County is
all volunteer.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
We actually interviewed about a year ago. I can't remember
how long. But she's like a big wig in the
volunteer fireworld. She's a captain and she's from the Northeast.
But I didn't realize that like seventy five percent of
all firehouses in the United States or staffed by volunteers. Yeah,
(13:37):
in urban areas, you're just used to having a firehouse,
But all over small town and suburban America are people
like Wells and your husband.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah, it's a real family. They you know, they they're
facing life threatening situations and they rely on one another
and they trust one another, and it's it's really amazing
how they come together for other reasons too, not just
to fight a fire.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
And now a few messages from our gender sponsors. But first,
I hope you'll consider signing up to join the army
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about our incredible guests, we'll be right back. It's almost
(14:41):
profound that as you hear the story of the benchmark
points of Well's life is something as simple as a
red bandanna. But there was a benchmark because of his father,
and then being a junior fire fighter and joining, and
(15:02):
then also being a guy who was always protective of
his sisters and all of these things. How these benchmarks
culminated in a defining moment for Wells. It's as if
his whole life was a training ground.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean there's stories.
His friends have stories, and we learned a lot of
the stories after he was lost. For example, high school,
and his friends would always say, if Wells was with us,
we knew he'd have our backs. High school, there's a
fight that broke out in the parking lot and between
(15:44):
a friend of Wells's and another young man who was
basically a troubled bad kid who ended up ultimately going
to jail and being killed or something. He was really
a troubled person. And there was a knife involved and
it was over a and so all these other students
were gathered around in the parking lot watching and Wells
(16:06):
walked up, walked into that scene, walked up to those
two boys and said to his friend, come away with me. Now,
what you decide to do now is going to determine
the rest of your life, So turn around and walk away.
Ignore the surety.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
How old was he He was well.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Senior night school, I think so most kids.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Most kids are jumping around raids going scream and fight, fight, fight,
And your kid walks in and says, not just Hayes
got a knife, walk away, but he says, what you
do today will impact the rest of your life. That
is serious maturity for an eighteen year old Kent.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yeah, I know. And these are stories that I mean,
we knew and loved Wells and knew he was a
good guy, but these are stories that serviced after he
was gone. You know, we really you know, never knew.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
So he graduates Boston College and he lands what everybody
wants is as a finance job in Manhattan. It yeah,
tell me about that and where and how it all
worked well.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
He actually was given an internship between his sophomore and
junior year in college. A friend of ours, her daughter,
also worked at sant Lorneial and was fourteen years older
than Well, so she was already established at the company
and sadly she was lost on nine to eleven, which
was horrible, but she ended up Wells got the internship
(17:25):
through her influence, and then when he graduated, that's where
we went to work at San Roneial.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
You know, I've got four kids. They are now twenty eight,
twenty seven, twenty six, wow, twenty five, Oh boy, meaning
they were one, two, three, and four.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Yeah, I can tell, yeah, yeah, I know. How did
she do that? Oh man?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Two of them happen to live here. I'll be having
dinner with them after we visit tonight. And you know,
I am so proud of each and every one of
them and love them. And I have to believe that
this kid that broke up fights, that was a captain
(18:09):
on the lacrosse or the hockey team, played lacrosse, went
to play Division one lacrosse, volunteered a time, grew up
in this diverse community with respect but care for everybody,
and now lands a job in Manhattan in the financial world.
(18:30):
You got to be as a parent on Cloud nine. Yeah, yeah,
you did it. You raised a good one.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, I raised three good ones. We raised three good ones.
And I'll never forget. You know, I always sort of
resisted feeling too good about things for some reason. I
don't know if it was. You know, just don't curse
the good things, you know. Just but I'll never forget
the summer of two thousand and one, and I just
woke up one morning just so overjoyed that Wells had
(18:59):
this great job, daughter honor had been given, was accepted
at Saint John's Law School with a twenty thousand dollars
a year presidential scholarship, and Page was rocking the ballet
world potentially, and I just just let it all go,
and I was just so happy. And then right, I know,
but then look what happened nine to eleven.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Pal It was like it just I just don't think.
I don't think the world, God, the universe, any of
it penalizes you.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
For being happy happy?
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Do not?
Speaker 1 (19:32):
I hope not.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I do not. I think it's quite the opposite. I
think the world is broken in any of those good
things that come your way are just a blessing.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah, oh, I know, there are many blessings.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I don't really think it's lucky, you're cursed. I think
it's we're broken. You're fortunate for the few good things
you do get. Yeah, I think it's the reverse of it.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
But well, thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Well, I mean, what do I know, I'm just a
fat guy. For the house. I'm not ever going to
ice skate or be a ballerina, trust me. So things
are great. Yeah, and Wells has I mean, when you're
in the financial world in Manhattan and the center of
(20:17):
the financial universe, you have a potential to become a
very wealthy person, and this cat calls you all up
and says, you know, I'm pretty sure this isn't what
i want to do for the rest of my life.
Do you remember that conversation.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
I'd never heard it directly because, oh, you wouldn't share
it with me, he called bad. Yes he did.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Dad must spend the soft touch, that's it.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Well, you know, yeah, and so because and I remember,
actually I yes, he talked to my husband about that,
and my husband's response was, Wells, you know you have
you take a big cut and salary if you do
that in big cut earnings, if you did do what
to become a New York's City firefighter, Because that's what
(21:01):
Wells was saying. I think I want to leave my
job and join the FDNY.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Who does that?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I know my son and so.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Sobody wouldn't do that. I'm going he had I'm guessing
he had to have had a really nice six figure
ish or better income with the possibilities of making so
much more. And this cat was to go be a
New York City firefighter.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Yeah, but you know what he said, money isn't everything.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
That's just what he believed.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
That's it. Money isn't everything, he said. And I remember
him saying, if my husband said this. And I learned
that when in the ESPN I think was in the
ESPN documentary where they were interviewing him, he said, if
I sit in front of this computer for the rest
of my life, I'll go crazy. He was a very
active guy. He was physically active. He enjoyed being physically active.
(21:55):
And I just think he just felt constrained so and also, oh,
I think he wanted to do correct.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Enough money about treadmill. I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Well again, you know, he didn't share this with me
in the beginning, But what happened was his last weekend home.
He came to his college photo portrait arrived and in
that time, putting gel in your hair was a thing,
and so that's what he did. And he took me
(22:27):
over that his portrait was on our piano and he said, Mom,
he said, what do you think. I said, Well, it
looks you look very handsome. It's fine, he said, I
think I made a mistake with the gel. I said, no,
it's fine, you look wonderful. So I turned around. Was
it was Labor Day weekend. I was taking him back
to the train to go back into the city, and
(22:48):
he stopped and I turned around. He said, you know, mom,
because he'd been very thoughtful, very introspective that whole weekend,
and he was spending time going through his albums that
he put together, going to the fireman's picnic, going to
see his sister in her end of summer performances.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
You say, this is Labor Day, so we're talking like September.
One second.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Yeah, yeah, it was that weekend and this his last
weekend home. And stopped and he said to me. I
thought maybe he was missing his girlfriend, which wasn't the case,
but he said this. They'd broken up. But he said,
you know, mom, He said, I don't know what it is,
but I do know this. I know I'm meant to
be part of something really, really big. So I think
(23:35):
he had premonitions. He had been in Spain the summer
before on a working on the borst and learn the
stock market over there, spending time in Italy, and he
went with friends to a cathedral in Toledo that's very
famous apparently, I think it was Toledo, and he was
in there and he said, I read this in his diary.
(23:59):
But he also said to me, you know, mom, I
had this experience that was really powerful, and it was
I had this sudden understanding. I was like transformed and
sudden understanding that my meant was my life was meant
for others, and it was I saw that later on
as kind of an epiphany somehow, and well that was
(24:22):
that was well, that was a big aha moment for him.
So I think that also contributed to him wanting to
be more in the in the fire department, which is
how he ended up on nine to eleven.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
We'll be right back. So today's later is not eleven.
Wells is still working as I guess it was a trader, yes, okay,
well still working as a trader, but had basically made
(24:59):
up as my to become a firefighter. I think he was.
My guess is he was convincing his mom it was
going to be.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Okay, you know, working out the script to tell me.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Yeah, probably, yeah, sure, and let's let's start with and
just go through it. The phone call you get from a.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Friend was I was at work. I was vice president
of sales for a company in Pleasantville, which was in
Westchester County, across the tappan Zee Bridge from where we
lived in Rockham County, and I was sitting with the
owner of the president. We were planning a business meeting
(25:47):
and that was going to happen the next week. And
her husband was a stockbroker, also working in Manhattan, and.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Her the World Trade Center elsewhere, oh elsewhere.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
He was not there, fortunately, he was midtown. More so,
her phone rings. I'm sitting with her in her office.
Her phone rings, and she said, Alison, it's for you.
It's your husband's secretary. I said, oh, well, my husband
was supposed to go to a golf outing that day,
so I thought, gosh, that's gee. I wonder if Jeff
(26:20):
had trouble on the road or something happened. So I
go to pick up the phone in my office and
the secretary said, Alison, Wells just called. He wanted you
to know he's okay. I said, Wells, why wouldn't he
be okay? She said, didn't you hear what happened? I said,
what happened. She said, a plane hit the World Trade Center.
(26:42):
Oh my god, I said, but Wells called, He's okay.
So that's in my head, and you know, like the
rest of the world, you're thinking that, how did that?
It must have been a small plane that went out
of Controner thought, right, too bad for them, I mean,
all of us all around the world except the terrorists
were thinking that probably anyway. So so I kept working
(27:04):
within my head and I looked at my cell phone
and there was a call that I'd missed from Wells.
It was like about nine seventeen in the morning or
nine nineteen nine night. Probably was nine nineteen because nineteen
was his lucky number. And he's saying, yes, yeah, he
(27:26):
always to see always as he could. You know, were
at Boston College when he was in Niak, And it
was just it was a message actually, thank god from that,
because if I'd actually spoken to him, I would have
said get that, you know, h double el hockey sticks
out of there, which he would never have done. But
(27:46):
he left a message, so we were able to capture
his voice and we have that recorded, thank goodness. So
it was just in my head he was okay, and
so I kept trying to work, and I went out
to hear, you know, because we didn't have a television
or radio, and it was a shop with offices in
the back. And I walked out and my coworkers were
(28:11):
looking at me like blanched white, and they said, the second,
you know, the second tower, the second tower has been
hit and a tower as towers collapsed. And I just
knew then that Wells was gone. I just knew that
was so I called my husband, crying, well, you know,
Wells has gone. And my husband said, don't say that
(28:34):
he had plenty of time to get out, which he did.
Turns out he could have left. He had plenty of
time to get out, and I couldn't imagine how you
get down from one hundred and four floors to ground.
But that was the start, and then we heard nothing
for a long time.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
So during that day between, wouldn't you think it's a
small plane And then you hear the second plane hits
and the tower collapses, and you have this, frankly mother's
intuition that your son has gone. Did you recall the
(29:15):
premonition you had only a.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Couple of days before, Uh not at that moment. Can
you tell us what that was okay, I'm happy to
September tenth. Oh, it was the day before, yeah, September. Well,
it started the day before September tenth. I was in
my office and went home and I'm in my kitchen
trying to work on getting dinner going my little my page,
(29:40):
who was a senior in high school at the time,
and my husband in the kitchen, and suddenly I just
like started to kind of shake in this like there's
something so and I never used the F word, but
I was thrown around that night. There's something so effing wrong.
I don't know what it is, but I just feel
like I felt like I was flying apart in a
thou and pieces really yes, yeah, I said, I don't
(30:02):
know what it is, but I feel like there's something
really wrong.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
So I went down physically, mentally.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Everything, every it was all one like thing. It's hard
to it's hard to describe, but I just I just
was really just shaking. So I went downstairs to.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
No apparent reason, no.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Not none. So I go downstairs to work on my
laptop and I start to reach for the keyboard and
suddenly the whole thing just fries like and I thought,
all right, well, I'm going to go to bed.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
I'm shaken. I feel like the world's falled apart, and
now my computer crashes. I don't go in to sleep.
We'll start tomorrow, right the hell with the day. I
don't blame you, Like what else are you going to do?
Either that or drinking?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Well? And yes, yes, so I wanted to try to
avoid that. Okaper, I feel like Scotch neat buddy perfect anyway.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Well they meet about the day. Was your Scotch.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Anyway? So I go to bed. I didn't sleep all night.
I belonged to a fitness club over in Westchester near
where my office was. So I got up and I'm
got dressed and I said, I'm going to go work out.
That'll help. So I'm on the chappen Zee Bridge. It
was I don't know, around seven o'clock in the morning
(31:28):
of September eleventh, and I'm still like white knuckle driving,
like I'm just like so tense. I couldn't figure out
what it was.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Do you think you're having like a little bit of
an anxiety attack over work stuff or it's just just
you just can't explain what's going on.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Well it wasn't. I knew It wasn't work because I
didn't get ever exit you know about that. It was
fun and I enjoyed it, so I couldn't figure it
out what it was. But anyway, so I'm driving across
the bridge this and suddenly into my head come these words,
I know what this means. I'm going to die today.
(32:07):
And the minute those words came into my head, I
felt like my chest opened up and a brilliant mist
and light shot out of me. And now I'm this
little bean shaped thing above my hair, still driving along,
but I was at complete serene and utter peace, just
filled with peace. And suddenly, oh well, I'm going to
(32:29):
die today, but it's meant to happen. It's supposed to happen.
Oh well, I wonder how it's going to happen. I
was like so objective about this message, and then I
started thinking, where did where did? Where did that come from?
It felt like it came from outside of me, but
it was inside at the same time. It was just
I'd never experienced anything like that point.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
If you realize people hearing that are like, come on, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
I am, but it's what it is, It's what happened.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
So I want you to know to be clear, absolutely
believe everything you're saying. After interviewing people's loans I have,
there are simply things that happen or our brains and
our lives and our spheres that we cannot understand. Yeah,
but I don't want people to think you're kookie. I
(33:18):
want people to hear you say. I get people not
even understand this, but I don't care because this is
my experience.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
That's right, That's basically what it is, and it's okay.
A lot of people will believe me. Other people don't,
and it's just there where they are. I don't care
because it's what happened. So anyway, I keep driving now,
thinking well, this is better. I'm going to die today,
but it's better than what I've been going through. And
then I thought, wait a second, I'm planning a business meeting.
(33:48):
Why should death be better better planning a business meeting.
I'd better go see a doctor. Okay, that was my
big takeaway, and then I'm drying. I took a short
cut through reservoirs behind a town called Terrytown. It's usually
very peaceful, but that morning there were thousands of upspiraling
(34:09):
mists on either side of me. When I drove through,
and I remember thinking and they were all the same height, thousands,
and I remember looking at that and thinking, well, I
don't know what this is, and I don't know how
I'm going to die, but I do know this much.
Today is a very evil day. That was the message
to me. And I actually had another friend saying to me,
(34:30):
who was in Nyak and lived on a home overlooking
the water. She said, did you see what the water
looked like today? It was so strange looking. So I
don't know what she saw, but that's what I saw anyway,
So I kept driving. Now, if anybody wants to question,
I've had premonitions since I was sixteen years old. Started
(34:53):
with simple things like, you know, a boyfriend breaking up
with me that was a complete surprise, now of the blue.
I ended up bursting into tears one night with no
idea why. And then the next day this fellow broke
up with me just as well. Turns out anyway, Yeah,
I know it was misguided youth anyway, So and then
(35:17):
you know, then it was, oh, I know, my friend's
going to have her baby. You know, like really, you know,
things like that that are just could be coincidental, But
as time went on, they became more organic and real.
So another time Wells and Honor were a Page wasn't
born yet, so Wells was maybe five, Honor was about three.
(35:38):
My in laws had a country a summer home up
on Martha's Vineyard Island, and it was in, you know,
end of June. I think we would stay there for
the month of July. And I for like three weeks
before we were going on this taking them up, I
kept having these pounding, recurrent visions of driving off a bridge. Boom,
(36:02):
driving off a bridge, and I thought, this is really ridiculous,
like what is going on here? So I finally I
didn't want trouble my husband, but I finally said, you know, Jeff,
I'm bigginging to think maybe I shouldn't drive the kids
up to the vineyard because I keep having these visions
of driving off a bridge. And he said, well, you know,
(36:24):
just do whatever you think is right, okay. So I thought,
all right, this is ridiculous. I'm not going to be
controlled by some weird crazy thinking. We're going. So I
packed up, got the kids in the car. The two
bridges I was worried about was the Tapenseee Bridge and
the Essex River Bridge up in Connecticut, which is a
(36:44):
big long bridge over the Essex River. So I drove
over the Tapenzee Bridge. It was fine, drive along, drive
along through Greenwich, through up through Connecticut, get over the
Essex Bridge and I and everything was fine. I get
on the we get on the ferry. We get to
(37:05):
the vineyard safe as can be. And I called my
husband about seven o'clock and said, Hi, we're here. Everything's fine.
I'm so sorry that I worried you. This was really ridiculous.
We go to bed next morning. My phone rings at
about six thirty in the morning, seven, my husband calling.
He said, did you hear what happened last night? I said, no,
what said? The Miannis River bridge collapsed. We went over
(37:28):
that bridge probably, I don't know, six seven, eight hours
before it collapsed. So I get these things, and I
have learned to embrace them as it is. I can't
explain why or how I get these things, but I do,
so maybe that will help.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Please tell me you're not thinking about a fat redhead
bob plus ontday.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
No, you're not fat, and you're very handsome, and.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
You'll be fair anymore to old thing. Yeah, and that
concludes part one of my conversation with Alison Crowther and guys,
you don't want to miss Part two that's now available
to listen to Aila, Alex's youngest daughter. And I really
(38:19):
wants you to go to part two, don't you, Yeah,
so tell them go to part two. Ring the Bell perfect,
Alan and I will see you guys in Part two
There was a woman at his office. Wells always carried
his red bandana, put it on his office desk, and
she said to him one day, Wells, what is it
with that red bandana? Why are you carrying that red
bandana all the time? And Wells just smiled her and
picked it up and held it up and he said,
with this red bandana, I'm going to change the world.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'd believable.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yep, Eddie did, and he did and he is doing it.
And I say to young people, I said, don't let
anybody take your power away from you. Don't do that.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,
I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach an
inner City Memphis. And the last part it somehow it
led to an oscar for the film about our team.
That movie is called Undefeated. I believe our country's problems
(01:01):
just are never going to be solved by a bunch
of fancy people and nice soups using big words that
nobody ever uses on CNN and box for rather by
an army of normal folks. Guys, that's us, just you
and me deciding, hey, I can help, And that's exactly
what the late Wells Crowther did. On September eleventh, two
(01:25):
thousand and one. This twenty four year old saved twelve
of the only eighteen survivors who were at or above
the floors where the plane struck the World Trade Center
South Tower, and he could have escaped too, but he
was helping even more escape on the ground floor when
the tower collapsed on. Wells is known as the Man
(01:49):
and the Red Bandanna because that's what he wore that
day and had with him every day since he was
a young boy when his father gave him a red bandana.
Cannot wait for you to meet his mom, Allison, who
pays tribute to him. Right after these brief messages from
our general sponsors, everybody, something really cool about the Wells
(02:22):
Crowther interview is we did it in front of a
live audience, which we're starting to do more and more of.
But this particular episode was done at the Stand Together
Headquarters in Alexandria, Right, Arlington, Arlington, Well right basically DC
here all right, a Stand Together headquarters. They've got this
(02:43):
really awesome studio and Well's mother, Alison joined us there
in front of an audience, and it's a well produced
video as well, so in addition to all the other stuff,
we hope you'll check that out as well. But together,
if we stand together as an army in rmal folks
(03:03):
and just pretty amazing stuff. Hey, Ala, did you like that? Perfect?
All right? I think we got the stamp up approval
from Alo, so we're good. We're good today. Alison Crowther
(03:24):
I pronounced that correctly, Yes she did. Okay. Allison is
going to talk about her personal member of the army,
her son. She is from Nyack, New York, Upper Nyack,
New York, and Alison kind of tell us what Upper Nyack,
(03:44):
New York is. I picture, you know, I picture quintessential
town squares and Norman Rockwell paintings. But maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Well, thank you so much for inviting me here today.
I'm honored to be here and be able to talk
about my son. And Alex knows me from the past
and so deeply touched. Upper Nayak. It's maybe not what
you think. It's a really interesting community. It's very diverse.
The tiny little place that is the village of Upper Nayak.
(04:20):
It's a mile square approximately there's a mom and a
pop shop across the street. It's still called Hortels, but
not for long. It's finally being taken over after many,
many many years. And then the village hall and a
Empire Hook and Ladder fire company, and that's pretty much
it for Upper Nayak. We're close to the village of Nayak,
(04:42):
which is the town that you're sort of envisioning. Lots
of restaurants, it's kind of a hot spot. A lot
of people think it's like a little Greenwich village. I've
heard that before. Really, yes, yeah, But the Nayaks are
along the Hudson River.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
But there how far from New York City. Oh I
don't twenty miles? Oh no, not far at all. It's
Rockland County is at the western Nayak. The Nyaks are
at the western foot of the tap and See Bridge
now known as the Mario Cuomo Bridge.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Oh, but there are people that want to change it
back to the tap and See Bridge, And I heard
actual rumors at one point there was a judge that
wanted to rename it the Wells Crowther Bridge. But of
course there are too many families with nine to eleven,
you know, significant losses that that would ever happen. So,
but the tap and see bridge is what everybody really wants. Anyhow,
(05:37):
Nayak is a very diverse community. There are children that
grow up in projects in the middle of Nayak and
children that grow up in mansions along the Hudson River,
and there's everything in between, different socioeconomic levels, different religious, cultural,
racial backgrounds. And the wonderful part about that is that
(06:01):
respect for others is taught from a very early age,
from kindergarten on and even earlier programs. Professionals, we have
a lot of medical professionals, law professors, attorneys, you know, doctors, lawyers,
chiefs of industry and teachers and a lot of musicians
(06:23):
and artists are also in that area, which gives it
a wonderful a wonderful feel.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
It's a lot of culture.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yes, it's just a wonderful place to grow up.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
So you and your husband decided to make a family there,
and you have how many children.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Well, we have two daughters. We had three Wells of course,
and then two daughters. He was the oldest, and then
two daughters. Honor was two years younger than Wells and
very close. In fact, they were kind of competitive with
one another. Honor was a really fine athlete, and actually
she they all went to Boston College. Eventually she ended
up playing on the women varsity lacrosse team, and Wells
(07:02):
was on the men's lacrosse team. And then our younger daughter,
Page was trained in classical ballet and very fine dancer,
so she trained with Bolshak Russians and New York City
Ballet co people dancers, so really fine American ballet theater.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
It's a shame your children are such low achievers, I know.
So let's pick up your Your husband's name is Jefferson.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
He was named after Thomas Jefferson. His father was actually
a Southern boy. Grew up in Lutherville, Maryland, and then down.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
In Maryland as a Southern boy.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Oh okay, sorry, I beg your pardon. What did I
say your.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Dogg to a guy went to the University of Mississippi.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Oh boy, well, is North Carolina better? He was down
there too for many years.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Now North Carolina's fringe. It's all North Carolina got it.
South Carolina's getting down.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
But his father, Bosi Crowther, was film critic for The
New York Times for many, many years. For fourty years
legendary actually, and was credited with bringing modern film foreign
films to this country. So yeah, so he really was
also embraced history, and that's why he named his third
(08:20):
son Jefferson.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I watched a small documentary that ESPN did on Wells
and your family, and it didn't go into why, and
I'm curious. At a very young age, Wells ran around
with a red handkerchief in his back pocket riding his bike.
(08:46):
Just had a red handkerchief. It was a thing. And apparently, Jefferson,
your husband gave him a red can you I think
that's important in germane to what we're going to get into, obviously,
but what's the genesis of the red handkerchief?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Well, thank you for asking. It's actually pretty simple. My
husband always used to carry bandanas in his back pocket
for missy jobs and that sort of thing. And we
were getting dressed for church one morning. Wells was wearing
a little suit and my husband was a banker, so
we always had a white handkerchief in his in his
breast pocket and carried bandanas in his back pocket for
(09:26):
the messy jobs. So Wells, little Wells, who adored his father,
said Daddy, can I have a bandana. Oh no, can
I have a handkerchief like you have in your in
your pocket? So my husband went to gay he said, yes, Wells,
he goes to get one and pulls it out, and
he said, he just thought he'd get him a bandana also,
So he happened to grab a red one and he
(09:47):
put the folded up and put the white one in
Wells's chest pocket, his breast pocket, and said, now, Wells,
this is for show. Don't touch it. Just leave it
right there. It's folded nicely. Leave it. Here's a bandana
that's for blow, for messy jobs, to blow your nose
to whatever, and keep that in your back pocket. And
that's basically how it started. My husband kept the blue ones.
(10:10):
Wells typically had red ones, and that's how we told
them apart in the laundry.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So very simple, so very simple. And from a young age,
it's like neighbors knew that that kid was always going
to have a red yeah bandana his friends did.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
He always wore one under his helmet. It just became
a i don't know, maybe a talisman or some such.
It was his connection to his.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Father and that's very cool.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, it helped him. I think he felt like he
was a big you know, getting to be a big
man now because he had that white handkerchief and then
the bandana in the back.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
So was your husband Your husband's a banker, yes, And
your husband was on the volunteer fire force, yes he was.
And Wells worshiping his father the old bandana thing. He
grew an affinity for the volunteer fire department in Niak
as a result of his father's involvement. Am I getting
(11:09):
that part right?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Absolutely? Yes. My husband used to take when Wells was little,
seven eight nine years old. He was small for his age.
He didn't really grow to his full size until college.
So he would my husband would bring Wells down to
the firehouse and they'd have clean up on the truck,
and Wells would go into the little places to clean
(11:31):
up where the other big men couldn't go. It was
just a thing, and a lot of the firefighters who
had sons would bring them in and they consequently became
full members like Wells did. Our daughter Honor was the
first female member of Empire Hooking Ladder. Because there wasn't
anything that Wells was going to do that she couldn't
(11:51):
do better.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Right, so did so Wells actually became a real live
hook and ladder of fire. Yes he did, Yeah, at
what age.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Well, he joined as a junior member at the age
of sixteen and trained and went to the you know,
the fire training center and did all the training to
join the company, and then when he turned eighteen he
was a full fledged member.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
As a mom, were you ever worried your husband, your daughter,
your son, were I mean we ever were they were
going to get in trouble? No?
Speaker 1 (12:22):
No, because they they I mean injury. I guess it
is always possible, but they're very savvy about how and
well trained, and so it was not anything that that
really occurred to me, but really not. It was more well,
for example, Christmas morning, had the tree all set up,
(12:44):
the breakfast, the brunch maid, the presence under the tree
ready to and the fire alarm went off and out
they go, and it was like really and it was
a big fire, real big fire that had happened down
and so yeah, things like that.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
But in a town like nac if you don't have
people like your daughter, your husband in Wells, there's nobody
coming to answer that.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
All right, that's right, and it's all Rockland County is
all volunteer.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
We actually interviewed about a year ago. I can't remember
how long. But she's like a big wig in the
volunteer fireworld. She's a captain and she's from the Northeast.
But I didn't realize that like seventy five percent of
all firehouses in the United States or staffed by volunteers. Yeah,
(13:37):
in urban areas, you're just used to having a firehouse,
But all over small town and suburban America are people
like Wells and your husband.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah, it's a real family. They you know, they they're
facing life threatening situations and they rely on one another
and they trust one another, and it's it's really amazing
how they come together for other reasons too, not just
to fight a fire.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
And now a few messages from our gender sponsors. But first,
I hope you'll consider signing up to join the army
at normal folks dot us. By signing up, you'll receive
a weekly email with short episode summaries in case you
happen to miss an episode, or if you prefer reading
about our incredible guests, we'll be right back. It's almost
(14:41):
profound that as you hear the story of the benchmark
points of Well's life is something as simple as a
red bandanna. But there was a benchmark because of his father,
and then being a junior fire fighter and joining, and
(15:02):
then also being a guy who was always protective of
his sisters and all of these things. How these benchmarks
culminated in a defining moment for Wells. It's as if
his whole life was a training ground.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean there's stories.
His friends have stories, and we learned a lot of
the stories after he was lost. For example, high school,
and his friends would always say, if Wells was with us,
we knew he'd have our backs. High school, there's a
fight that broke out in the parking lot and between
(15:44):
a friend of Wells's and another young man who was
basically a troubled bad kid who ended up ultimately going
to jail and being killed or something. He was really
a troubled person. And there was a knife involved and
it was over a and so all these other students
were gathered around in the parking lot watching and Wells
(16:06):
walked up, walked into that scene, walked up to those
two boys and said to his friend, come away with me. Now,
what you decide to do now is going to determine
the rest of your life, So turn around and walk away.
Ignore the surety.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
How old was he He was well.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Senior night school, I think so most kids.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Most kids are jumping around raids going scream and fight, fight, fight,
And your kid walks in and says, not just Hayes
got a knife, walk away, but he says, what you
do today will impact the rest of your life. That
is serious maturity for an eighteen year old Kent.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yeah, I know. And these are stories that I mean,
we knew and loved Wells and knew he was a
good guy, but these are stories that serviced after he
was gone. You know, we really you know, never knew.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
So he graduates Boston College and he lands what everybody
wants is as a finance job in Manhattan. It yeah,
tell me about that and where and how it all
worked well.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
He actually was given an internship between his sophomore and
junior year in college. A friend of ours, her daughter,
also worked at sant Lorneial and was fourteen years older
than Well, so she was already established at the company
and sadly she was lost on nine to eleven, which
was horrible, but she ended up Wells got the internship
(17:25):
through her influence, and then when he graduated, that's where
we went to work at San Roneial.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
You know, I've got four kids. They are now twenty eight,
twenty seven, twenty six, wow, twenty five, Oh boy, meaning
they were one, two, three, and four.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Yeah, I can tell, yeah, yeah, I know. How did
she do that? Oh man?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Two of them happen to live here. I'll be having
dinner with them after we visit tonight. And you know,
I am so proud of each and every one of
them and love them. And I have to believe that
this kid that broke up fights, that was a captain
(18:09):
on the lacrosse or the hockey team, played lacrosse, went
to play Division one lacrosse, volunteered a time, grew up
in this diverse community with respect but care for everybody,
and now lands a job in Manhattan in the financial world.
(18:30):
You got to be as a parent on Cloud nine. Yeah, yeah,
you did it. You raised a good one.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, I raised three good ones. We raised three good ones.
And I'll never forget. You know, I always sort of
resisted feeling too good about things for some reason. I
don't know if it was. You know, just don't curse
the good things, you know. Just but I'll never forget
the summer of two thousand and one, and I just
woke up one morning just so overjoyed that Wells had
(18:59):
this great job, daughter honor had been given, was accepted
at Saint John's Law School with a twenty thousand dollars
a year presidential scholarship, and Page was rocking the ballet
world potentially, and I just just let it all go,
and I was just so happy. And then right, I know,
but then look what happened nine to eleven.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Pal It was like it just I just don't think.
I don't think the world, God, the universe, any of
it penalizes you.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
For being happy happy?
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Do not?
Speaker 1 (19:32):
I hope not.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I do not. I think it's quite the opposite. I
think the world is broken in any of those good
things that come your way are just a blessing.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah, oh, I know, there are many blessings.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I don't really think it's lucky, you're cursed. I think
it's we're broken. You're fortunate for the few good things
you do get. Yeah, I think it's the reverse of it.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
But well, thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Well, I mean, what do I know, I'm just a
fat guy. For the house. I'm not ever going to
ice skate or be a ballerina, trust me. So things
are great. Yeah, and Wells has I mean, when you're
in the financial world in Manhattan and the center of
(20:17):
the financial universe, you have a potential to become a
very wealthy person, and this cat calls you all up
and says, you know, I'm pretty sure this isn't what
i want to do for the rest of my life.
Do you remember that conversation.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
I'd never heard it directly because, oh, you wouldn't share
it with me, he called bad. Yes he did.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Dad must spend the soft touch, that's it.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Well, you know, yeah, and so because and I remember,
actually I yes, he talked to my husband about that,
and my husband's response was, Wells, you know you have
you take a big cut and salary if you do
that in big cut earnings, if you did do what
to become a New York's City firefighter, Because that's what
(21:01):
Wells was saying. I think I want to leave my
job and join the FDNY.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Who does that?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I know my son and so.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Sobody wouldn't do that. I'm going he had I'm guessing
he had to have had a really nice six figure
ish or better income with the possibilities of making so
much more. And this cat was to go be a
New York City firefighter.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Yeah, but you know what he said, money isn't everything.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
That's just what he believed.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
That's it. Money isn't everything, he said. And I remember
him saying, if my husband said this. And I learned
that when in the ESPN I think was in the
ESPN documentary where they were interviewing him, he said, if
I sit in front of this computer for the rest
of my life, I'll go crazy. He was a very
active guy. He was physically active. He enjoyed being physically active.
(21:55):
And I just think he just felt constrained so and also, oh,
I think he wanted to do correct.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Enough money about treadmill. I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Well again, you know, he didn't share this with me
in the beginning, But what happened was his last weekend home.
He came to his college photo portrait arrived and in
that time, putting gel in your hair was a thing,
and so that's what he did. And he took me
(22:27):
over that his portrait was on our piano and he said, Mom,
he said, what do you think. I said, Well, it
looks you look very handsome. It's fine, he said, I
think I made a mistake with the gel. I said, no,
it's fine, you look wonderful. So I turned around. Was
it was Labor Day weekend. I was taking him back
to the train to go back into the city, and
(22:48):
he stopped and I turned around. He said, you know, mom,
because he'd been very thoughtful, very introspective that whole weekend,
and he was spending time going through his albums that
he put together, going to the fireman's picnic, going to
see his sister in her end of summer performances.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
You say, this is Labor Day, so we're talking like September.
One second.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Yeah, yeah, it was that weekend and this his last
weekend home. And stopped and he said to me. I
thought maybe he was missing his girlfriend, which wasn't the case,
but he said this. They'd broken up. But he said,
you know, mom, He said, I don't know what it is,
but I do know this. I know I'm meant to
be part of something really, really big. So I think
(23:35):
he had premonitions. He had been in Spain the summer
before on a working on the borst and learn the
stock market over there, spending time in Italy, and he
went with friends to a cathedral in Toledo that's very
famous apparently, I think it was Toledo, and he was
in there and he said, I read this in his diary.
(23:59):
But he also said to me, you know, mom, I
had this experience that was really powerful, and it was
I had this sudden understanding. I was like transformed and
sudden understanding that my meant was my life was meant
for others, and it was I saw that later on
as kind of an epiphany somehow, and well that was
(24:22):
that was well, that was a big aha moment for him.
So I think that also contributed to him wanting to
be more in the in the fire department, which is
how he ended up on nine to eleven.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
We'll be right back. So today's later is not eleven.
Wells is still working as I guess it was a trader, yes, okay,
well still working as a trader, but had basically made
(24:59):
up as my to become a firefighter. I think he was.
My guess is he was convincing his mom it was
going to be.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Okay, you know, working out the script to tell me.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Yeah, probably, yeah, sure, and let's let's start with and
just go through it. The phone call you get from a.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Friend was I was at work. I was vice president
of sales for a company in Pleasantville, which was in
Westchester County, across the tappan Zee Bridge from where we
lived in Rockham County, and I was sitting with the
owner of the president. We were planning a business meeting
(25:47):
and that was going to happen the next week. And
her husband was a stockbroker, also working in Manhattan, and.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Her the World Trade Center elsewhere, oh elsewhere.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
He was not there, fortunately, he was midtown. More so,
her phone rings. I'm sitting with her in her office.
Her phone rings, and she said, Alison, it's for you.
It's your husband's secretary. I said, oh, well, my husband
was supposed to go to a golf outing that day,
so I thought, gosh, that's gee. I wonder if Jeff
(26:20):
had trouble on the road or something happened. So I
go to pick up the phone in my office and
the secretary said, Alison, Wells just called. He wanted you
to know he's okay. I said, Wells, why wouldn't he
be okay? She said, didn't you hear what happened? I said,
what happened. She said, a plane hit the World Trade Center.
(26:42):
Oh my god, I said, but Wells called, He's okay.
So that's in my head, and you know, like the
rest of the world, you're thinking that, how did that?
It must have been a small plane that went out
of Controner thought, right, too bad for them, I mean,
all of us all around the world except the terrorists
were thinking that probably anyway. So so I kept working
(27:04):
within my head and I looked at my cell phone
and there was a call that I'd missed from Wells.
It was like about nine seventeen in the morning or
nine nineteen nine night. Probably was nine nineteen because nineteen
was his lucky number. And he's saying, yes, yeah, he
(27:26):
always to see always as he could. You know, were
at Boston College when he was in Niak, And it
was just it was a message actually, thank god from that,
because if I'd actually spoken to him, I would have
said get that, you know, h double el hockey sticks
out of there, which he would never have done. But
(27:46):
he left a message, so we were able to capture
his voice and we have that recorded, thank goodness. So
it was just in my head he was okay, and
so I kept trying to work, and I went out
to hear, you know, because we didn't have a television
or radio, and it was a shop with offices in
the back. And I walked out and my coworkers were
(28:11):
looking at me like blanched white, and they said, the second,
you know, the second tower, the second tower has been
hit and a tower as towers collapsed. And I just
knew then that Wells was gone. I just knew that
was so I called my husband, crying, well, you know,
Wells has gone. And my husband said, don't say that
(28:34):
he had plenty of time to get out, which he did.
Turns out he could have left. He had plenty of
time to get out, and I couldn't imagine how you
get down from one hundred and four floors to ground.
But that was the start, and then we heard nothing
for a long time.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
So during that day between, wouldn't you think it's a
small plane And then you hear the second plane hits
and the tower collapses, and you have this, frankly mother's
intuition that your son has gone. Did you recall the
(29:15):
premonition you had only a.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Couple of days before, Uh not at that moment. Can
you tell us what that was okay, I'm happy to
September tenth. Oh, it was the day before, yeah, September. Well,
it started the day before September tenth. I was in
my office and went home and I'm in my kitchen
trying to work on getting dinner going my little my page,
(29:40):
who was a senior in high school at the time,
and my husband in the kitchen, and suddenly I just
like started to kind of shake in this like there's
something so and I never used the F word, but
I was thrown around that night. There's something so effing wrong.
I don't know what it is, but I just feel
like I felt like I was flying apart in a
thou and pieces really yes, yeah, I said, I don't
(30:02):
know what it is, but I feel like there's something
really wrong.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
So I went down physically, mentally.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Everything, every it was all one like thing. It's hard
to it's hard to describe, but I just I just
was really just shaking. So I went downstairs to.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
No apparent reason, no.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Not none. So I go downstairs to work on my
laptop and I start to reach for the keyboard and
suddenly the whole thing just fries like and I thought,
all right, well, I'm going to go to bed.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
I'm shaken. I feel like the world's falled apart, and
now my computer crashes. I don't go in to sleep.
We'll start tomorrow, right the hell with the day. I
don't blame you, Like what else are you going to do?
Either that or drinking?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Well? And yes, yes, so I wanted to try to
avoid that. Okaper, I feel like Scotch neat buddy perfect anyway.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Well they meet about the day. Was your Scotch.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Anyway? So I go to bed. I didn't sleep all night.
I belonged to a fitness club over in Westchester near
where my office was. So I got up and I'm
got dressed and I said, I'm going to go work out.
That'll help. So I'm on the chappen Zee Bridge. It
was I don't know, around seven o'clock in the morning
(31:28):
of September eleventh, and I'm still like white knuckle driving,
like I'm just like so tense. I couldn't figure out
what it was.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Do you think you're having like a little bit of
an anxiety attack over work stuff or it's just just
you just can't explain what's going on.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Well it wasn't. I knew It wasn't work because I
didn't get ever exit you know about that. It was
fun and I enjoyed it, so I couldn't figure it
out what it was. But anyway, so I'm driving across
the bridge this and suddenly into my head come these words,
I know what this means. I'm going to die today.
(32:07):
And the minute those words came into my head, I
felt like my chest opened up and a brilliant mist
and light shot out of me. And now I'm this
little bean shaped thing above my hair, still driving along,
but I was at complete serene and utter peace, just
filled with peace. And suddenly, oh well, I'm going to
(32:29):
die today, but it's meant to happen. It's supposed to happen.
Oh well, I wonder how it's going to happen. I
was like so objective about this message, and then I
started thinking, where did where did? Where did that come from?
It felt like it came from outside of me, but
it was inside at the same time. It was just
I'd never experienced anything like that point.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
If you realize people hearing that are like, come on, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
I am, but it's what it is, It's what happened.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
So I want you to know to be clear, absolutely
believe everything you're saying. After interviewing people's loans I have,
there are simply things that happen or our brains and
our lives and our spheres that we cannot understand. Yeah,
but I don't want people to think you're kookie. I
(33:18):
want people to hear you say. I get people not
even understand this, but I don't care because this is
my experience.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
That's right, That's basically what it is, and it's okay.
A lot of people will believe me. Other people don't,
and it's just there where they are. I don't care
because it's what happened. So anyway, I keep driving now,
thinking well, this is better. I'm going to die today,
but it's better than what I've been going through. And
then I thought, wait a second, I'm planning a business meeting.
(33:48):
Why should death be better better planning a business meeting.
I'd better go see a doctor. Okay, that was my
big takeaway, and then I'm drying. I took a short
cut through reservoirs behind a town called Terrytown. It's usually
very peaceful, but that morning there were thousands of upspiraling
(34:09):
mists on either side of me. When I drove through,
and I remember thinking and they were all the same height, thousands,
and I remember looking at that and thinking, well, I
don't know what this is, and I don't know how
I'm going to die, but I do know this much.
Today is a very evil day. That was the message
to me. And I actually had another friend saying to me,
(34:30):
who was in Nyak and lived on a home overlooking
the water. She said, did you see what the water
looked like today? It was so strange looking. So I
don't know what she saw, but that's what I saw anyway,
So I kept driving. Now, if anybody wants to question,
I've had premonitions since I was sixteen years old. Started
(34:53):
with simple things like, you know, a boyfriend breaking up
with me that was a complete surprise, now of the blue.
I ended up bursting into tears one night with no
idea why. And then the next day this fellow broke
up with me just as well. Turns out anyway, Yeah,
I know it was misguided youth anyway, So and then
(35:17):
you know, then it was, oh, I know, my friend's
going to have her baby. You know, like really, you know,
things like that that are just could be coincidental, But
as time went on, they became more organic and real.
So another time Wells and Honor were a Page wasn't
born yet, so Wells was maybe five, Honor was about three.
(35:38):
My in laws had a country a summer home up
on Martha's Vineyard Island, and it was in, you know,
end of June. I think we would stay there for
the month of July. And I for like three weeks
before we were going on this taking them up, I
kept having these pounding, recurrent visions of driving off a bridge. Boom,
(36:02):
driving off a bridge, and I thought, this is really ridiculous,
like what is going on here? So I finally I
didn't want trouble my husband, but I finally said, you know, Jeff,
I'm bigginging to think maybe I shouldn't drive the kids
up to the vineyard because I keep having these visions
of driving off a bridge. And he said, well, you know,
(36:24):
just do whatever you think is right, okay. So I thought,
all right, this is ridiculous. I'm not going to be
controlled by some weird crazy thinking. We're going. So I
packed up, got the kids in the car. The two
bridges I was worried about was the Tapenseee Bridge and
the Essex River Bridge up in Connecticut, which is a
(36:44):
big long bridge over the Essex River. So I drove
over the Tapenzee Bridge. It was fine, drive along, drive
along through Greenwich, through up through Connecticut, get over the
Essex Bridge and I and everything was fine. I get
on the we get on the ferry. We get to
(37:05):
the vineyard safe as can be. And I called my
husband about seven o'clock and said, Hi, we're here. Everything's fine.
I'm so sorry that I worried you. This was really ridiculous.
We go to bed next morning. My phone rings at
about six thirty in the morning, seven, my husband calling.
He said, did you hear what happened last night? I said, no,
what said? The Miannis River bridge collapsed. We went over
(37:28):
that bridge probably, I don't know, six seven, eight hours
before it collapsed. So I get these things, and I
have learned to embrace them as it is. I can't
explain why or how I get these things, but I do,
so maybe that will help.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Please tell me you're not thinking about a fat redhead
bob plus ontday.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
No, you're not fat, and you're very handsome, and.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
You'll be fair anymore to old thing. Yeah, and that
concludes part one of my conversation with Alison Crowther and guys,
you don't want to miss Part two that's now available
to listen to Aila, Alex's youngest daughter. And I really
(38:19):
wants you to go to part two, don't you, Yeah,
so tell them go to part two. Ring the Bell perfect,
Alan and I will see you guys in Part two
Host
Bill Courtney
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