A Family's Grief, Two Decades After 9/11

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2021

⏱️ 54 minutes

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Summary

In one month, the U.S. will mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11, when nearly 3,000 Americans were killed in terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In a new piece for The Atlantic, staff writer Jennifer Senior details how the family of Bobby McIlvaine continues to mourn and search for meaning two decades after he was killed in the attacks. The portrait reveals the disparate ways his loved ones process their grief, including Bobby’s father, who turned to 9/11 truther conspiracies to make sense of the loss, and Bobby’s former girlfriend, who holds on to one of his journals. As we remember the tragedy of that fateful day in 2001, we’ll talk to Senior about what the McIlvaines’ story tells us about grieving, both as individuals and as a nation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for Kikiweedy Podcasts comes from Rancho La Puerta, a resort with 85 years of wellness experience.
0:07.4	Three and four-night August vacations include sunrise hikes, water classes, yoga, and spa therapies.
0:14.2	Rancho LePuerta.com
0:15.7	Support for Forum comes from Broadway S.F. presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.
0:23.5	From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and Lucille Frank,
0:29.8	a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is accused of an
0:35.5	unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice, and devotion.
0:43.6	The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orpheum Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.
0:51.9	Tickets on sale now at Broadwaysf.com.
0:56.7	From KQED.
1:00.3	From KQVD Public Radio in San Francisco, I'm Nina Kim.
1:13.6	Coming up on Forum, Bobby McLevane was 26 years old when he was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9-11.
1:21.6	A new Atlantic cover story takes a deep look at how Bobby's loved ones have grieved and made sense of his death in very different ways.
1:30.4	One repressed the pain, another was driven down the rabbit hole of 9-11 conspiracy theories.
1:36.5	Next month marks 20 years since the 9-11 attacks.
1:39.8	Atlantic staff writer Jennifer Sr. joins us to share what she's learned through the story of the
1:44.4	McLevains about how people process sudden traumatic loss. Join us.
1:53.4	This is Forum. I'm Mina Kim. It's been nearly two decades since Bobby McElbane went to Windows on the World Restaurant at the World Trade Center for a conference on the morning of 9-11 and never came home. He was 26 years old. From that point forward, Jennifer Sr. writes in the Atlantic, I watched as everyone
2:19.7	in the blast radius of this horrible event tried to make sense of it, tried to cope. There were
2:25.8	McLevane's parents, his brother, and the woman he was preparing to propose to, and they've all mourned
2:33.1	Bobby's death very differently. Jennifer Sr., welcome to Forum.
2:38.4	Thank you so much for having me here. Really appreciate you being on. And you also knew Bobby McLevane
	...

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