Ex-Lincoln woman recalls Sept. 11

LINCOLN – The horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001, aren’t keeping Katie Vance, one of a set of Lincoln triplets, from living in the bright lights of New York City, a place she loves.

Every morning Vance wakes up to check the latest terror alert status, but other than that she says her life hasn’t really changed all that much. “It is just something we have become accustomed to since September 11,” she said during a recent visit with her parents, Wayne and Bonnie Vance, and her triplet sister, Kerri, and triplet brother, Joshua.

During the terrorist attacks last year, Vance was walking in Greenwich Village, having coffee before she went to her work-study job at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. “Suddenly crowds of people were saying, ‘Oh my God, look at that plane, it’s flying really low,'” she recalled. The next thing Vance and the crowd saw was smoke and flames from the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center. Vance ran uptown and later at work learned a second plane had hit. She and other students were sent to their dorms. She could see huge plumes of black smoke and hear the piercing sound of sirens.

“It was so scary … the rubble, blackened buildings and the big cranes everywhere,” she said. “It’s a sight I’ll never forget. I still get goose pimples and chills just thinking about it and sometimes when I read articles about the people left behind, I start to cry.”

Vance considers herself to be very fortunate compared with several of her Long Island classmates and friends. “I’m just thankful,” she said. “A large majority of the girls in my school were from well-to-do families and their dads worked at these companies. They lost parents or relatives and are still trying to cope with the loss. One friend lost like four family members on September 11. She is still in therapy and is not going back to school.”

The triplet is taking this semester off from school. She has a new apartment in Brooklyn where she still can see the skyline of Manhattan. She plans to work as a nanny and plans to attend Queens College next spring to become a teacher. “I still love the city and definitely see myself living there for a while,” she said.

Vance said she believes America has learned a lot from he attacks. “We are known to be the mother nation that helps every other country, yet we never thought someone could do this to us. We got a reality check and it shows we are not invincible.”

The 20-year-old said she and many other New Yorkers are taking the advice of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. “I’m living my life,” she said. “Just like other people, I’m doing all of the things I have always done because I don’t want the terrorists to achieve their goal of hurting us.”