Opinion: A New 9/11 Memoir Reminds Us That the Day’s Story Is Still Being Written

Porter Gifford/Corbis via Getty On September 11, 2001, John Feal was running toward the World Trade Center.

Six blocks away, I was escaping in the opposite direction.

A construction supervisor from Long Island, Feal volunteered at Ground Zero to help clear the smoking wreckage in the hope of finding survivors.

My husband and I fled our apartment in Lower Manhattan, only to be swallowed by the massive dust cloud that rolled across Battery Park when the Twin Towers collapsed.

Neither of us imagined that dust would still be shaping our lives a quarter century later.

For Feal, the consequences came quickly.

After six days working on the pile, an 8,000-pound steel beam fell and crushed his left foot, costing him half of it and nearly his life.

Enduring two months of surgeries plus a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress and GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease), he started going regularly to group therapy sessions for 9/11 responders .

There, he heard stories that sounded increasingly familiar: chronic coughs that wouldn’t go away, respiratory diseases, cancers, digestive disorders.

Since the government had declared that the air was “ safe ,” rescue workers were burning through their savings to pay for medical care while struggling to convince anyone that their illnesses were connected to the terrorist attack.

“Up until now, there hasn’t been much organizing or community action,” Feal recalls in his newly-published memoir, I’ll Follow You Anywhere .

“I intend to change that.

I’m not a counselor, a lawyer, or a lobbyist, but I get a reputation as the person to call to take down your story and connect you with others in the same situation.” The more stories he heard, the clearer the pattern became, inspiring Feal to start the FealGood Foundation in 2005.

What began as a grassroots effort quickly became a lifeline, helping families get to medical appointments, pay bills, and, increasingly, fund funerals.