Page 80 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Late January 2019

80 9/11 Messages From Beyond?

Messages From Beyond? discussions with," said McEneaney, who turned other. Lisa O'Brien and her friend Joanne Kelly
their stories into a book called "Messages: bonded over their strange experiences.
9/11 Families Say They're Signs, Visits, and Premonitions from Loved O'Brien recalled a ritual she shared with

Ones Lost on 9/11." her deceased husband: "He was whistling 'A
Touched by Loved Ones Once a doubter, the former corporate Penny For Your Thoughts, A Nickel For A Kiss,'
Lost vice president now says she is a firm believer in and I said, 'Wow, I wonder what a quarter would
premonitions. She points to stories like Monica be.'"
and Michael Iken's. The couple got married on Quarters became the couple's private
ABC News September 11, 2000, and Monica said Michael joke. After he died, O'Brien said she started
felt that something was off that morning. During finding quarters everywhere, and in the strangest
The first time Lisa O'Brien knew something the outdoor service, a jet buzzed overhead, so of places.
bizarre was happening was when she found her loud and so close, that they had to stop the "I would get up out of bed in the middle
4-year-old daughter Jacie having a conversation service precisely at "I do." of the night to check on the kids and I'd come
in an empty room. "He just was horrified. He turned to me back to bed and there'd be a quarter in my bed,"
"I'd say, 'Jacie, who are you talking to?' and was like, 'We're jinxed,'" Monica Iken said O'Brien, who is convinced that the coins
'My dad! Talking to daddy,'" O'Brien recalled. recalled. were a message from beyond the grave.
"She would tell me she could see him." Nearly a year later, on September 9, Kelly was on the phone with her husband
Jacie's father had recently died in the 2001, the Ikens checked into a hotel at Boston when the first plane hit the North Tower.
9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. O'Brien airport. Watching the television, she saw the second
said she tried to gently probe Jacie, who "He's like, 'Monica, I have to get out of plane hit. At that moment, she said, "I couldn't
revealed that her daddy had been telling her here, right now, we have to check out right feel him." Much later, she toured the morgue,
"knock, knock" jokes. Jacie also could recite the now,'" she said. where medical examiners had been thus far
names of her father's co-workers, who had all Monica couldn't figure out why her new unable to locate her husband's remains. As she
died in the attack -- many of whom her mother husband was so distraught, but after he was lost stood there, she said, she felt her heart racing.
said she had never met. in the Twin Towers, she learned that the There were eight morgue trucks lined up and
"I showed her a picture and said, 'Do you hijackers had been casing out the airport at that Joanne pointed to one and said, "He's in that
know who these guys are?', and she said, same moment. Afterwards, when she looked at one." As if on cue, she said, a staff member came
'Mommy, those are the boys,'" said O'Brien, who one of her wedding photos, she noticed another into the room and said, "You're never going to
was in awe of her daughter's connection with her eerie discovery: a black streak covered believe this. This never, ever happens, never
deceased dad. "I was jealous…because she got Michael's whole body in one of the photos. happens, one in a million. We found his
to see them and I didn't." Some had even stronger premonitions. remains."
The O'Briens are just two of many David McCourt's wife Ruth was supposed to
people coming forward in what may be the head to the west coast for a brief trip, but he said Visits from Beyond?
strangest aftermath of 9/11. For most, the attack Ruth seemed to know she wasn't coming back.
on the World Trade Center remains a national "She was writing notes in her final week to Even more astonishing are reports of actual
and emotional scar, but for some relatives left people that she cared for, making amends with sightings. Monica Iken recalled waking up, to
behind it has also been a step into a spiritual everybody," McCourt said. Their 4-year-old see her husband Michael standing at the foot of
world they say they never could have imagined. daughter Juliana was supposed to stay home the bed.
with David that day, but at the last moment, his "He was all glowing, and I just sat up, I
9/11 Widow Recalls Husband's wife changed her mind. said, 'Thank you for coming.' As quick as I said
Premonitions "She turned to me and said, 'David, that, he left. But he was smiling. He was telling
Juliana belongs with me. I'm taking Juliana with me he was there with me. It was not a dream. He
me,'" he said.
Bonnie McEneaney's strange journey began was literally standing there," Monica Iken said.
with premonitions. Her 46-year old husband, Both Juliana and Ruth were on one of the "These kinds of things tend to happen
Eamon, a legendary athlete turned trader who doomed flights that crashed into the towers. with people when people lose someone very,
worked at the World Trade Center, seemed to very close to them," said Shear, who added that
have a foreboding feeling in the weeks before Premonitions: Real or Imaginary? while there are rational explanations, she doesn't
September 11th. On September 2, 2001 she said totally discount the possibility that the incidents
they were at a barbecue where Eamon spoke to Could these premonitions be real? might be something more. "Obviously, there's so
his brother about the possibility of the World "I think people feel that they experience many things that we just do not understand."
Trade Center being hit again. He was debating premonitions," said Dr. Katherine Shear, a In the end, McEneaney and the others
whether he should take people to the roof this psychiatrist and expert on grief at Columbia said they don't mind whether you believe them
time or whether he should try to bring them University. "What we don't know is how often or not; the messages they have received brought
down the stairs, McEneaney recalled. And in the people experience premonitions that actually them comfort they deeply needed.
days that followed, she said it was clear that come true, compared to ones that don't." "It's not about death," said McEneaney.
Eamon suspected he didn't have long to live. But many of the people coming forward "It's about love and hope and loving connections
"One night, I was cooking, he walked in say there is no rational explanation for what they that continue, even after death." []
and he said, 'You had better become more of a went through the terrorist attacks. The morning
disciplinarian with the children because when of 9/11, McEneaney had her first strange
I'm gone it's going to be hard,'" McEneaney said. experience in her front yard. Still hoping against
The morning of 9/11, as Eamon got hope that her husband had survived, McEneaney
ready to go to work, his wife said there was went outside and yelled, "Eamon where are
another sign. In the shower, Eamon had a vertigo you?" All of a sudden she said she heard leaves
attack -- a problem he had developed years rustling and the branches swaying and "a river of
before but hadn't affected him in over nine wind" slowly swirled and twirled toward her. It
months. whimsically lifted her skirt and then stopped.
She knew at that moment, she said, that her 9/11
'Goose-Bump' Experiences Common question had been answered. Eamon was gone.

Speaking with others in the 9/11 community, Solidarity Among 9/11 Widows

McEneaney discovered that "goose-bump"
experiences like hers were common. McEneaney said there are so many stories of
"I think there's probably been close to people who thought they were alone in these
200 people that I've interviewed or had eerie experiences until they opened up to each