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American Morning

Interview With Gail Sheehy

Aired September 09, 2003 - 09:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Writer Gail Sheehy is famous for marking life's passages. Her latest work may have been her most challenging, though. It's about a New Jersey community that was devastated by the September 11 attacks. Middletown, New Jersey was an emotional "Ground Zero" after losing 50 people in the World Trade Center attack. Gail Sheehy's new book tells the town's story and it's called "Middletown America: One Town's Passage From Trauma to Hope."
Gail Sheehy joins us this morning. Nice to see you. This is a beautiful book.

GAIL SHEEHY, AUTHOR, "MIDDLETOWN AMERICA": Thank you.

O'BRIEN: And it must have been so difficult to write because you are right in the mid of people's lives at the worst possible moment. Was it?

SHEEHY: Well, yes. And I have to tell you that honestly that for the first 17 months of research and living part time in Middletown, I didn't know if there was going to be any light at the end of the tunnel for any of these 50 people that I was following.

But by the 18th month, somehow, the first tentative steps, turning corners and those people then gave hope to others who were in their same support groups. And the town began to come together. You know, Middletown, there was no middle.

But gradually, people found ways to reach out and show their neighbors they didn't know before that they really cared.

O'BRIEN: It is not an exaggeration to say this town was just devastated by the 9/11 attacks because so many people, of course, because of its location, worked downtown in Manhattan and then would commute back and forth and have their families in Middletown.

Was that pretty much why you picked that as the emotional Ground Zero?

SHEEHY: Well, that obvious fact that 50 people were lost in that immediate area. But also it was the idealized American suburb and it says a lot about where America was at the time that we had these attacks, where people didn't necessarily know their neighbors or think they needed community.

And when this tragedy happened they had to go back to what made us great as a country to begin with, helping each other.

O'BRIEN: How soon after the attacks did you start spending time in Middletown and start...

SHEEHY: A couple of weeks.

O'BRIEN: So that soon?

SHEEHY: Yes.

O'BRIEN: And what was it like?

SHEEHY: People were walking around like zombies. There was still a cloud of smoke from the Trade Center over Middletown. The kids would wake up every morning. And the young kids were listening to things about Osama bin Laden. And when they saw the picture they thought he liked like "Sourman" from "The Lord of the Rings."

So it was six month the town was in depression. One of the pastors said, We were dead men walking. And then the anger started bubbling up and anger's an energizer. So people bike list Christian Brightwiser (ph) gathered together with three other widows and they began taking the SUV to Washington and banging on doors for congressman saying, We need an investigation. How could this have happened?

O'BRIEN: It is amazing to see how these widows -- and a lot of the book's focus, but not all of it, is on these relatively young women whose lives changed. And they after time just pick up and run with the ball and say, I want to learn about the laws. I want to understand where the money's being spent, things like that.

One young woman says to you, Where is the book for a 30-year-old widow with a 2-year-old whose husband was killed by terrorists? Like there is no guide book for me so I've got to forge my own way.

SHEEHY: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: Were you impressed by these women? You must have been.

SHEEHY: Oh, I was. And I was with them as they grew. And I was also with them at the end of the day after they racketed around Congress and buttonholed John McCain and this one and that one. And then they would sit there with the takeout food and go back into longing for their husbands.

And one day, one of them, Patty Kazasik (ph) said, Well, we did the rally. Now can our husbands come home?

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: It kills you. And there's a line in the book where you say -- or someone I think says, Grieving is not linear, it's spiral. And you get this sense of -- and one woman, specifically I thought, Pat Wotten (ph).

SHEEHY: Wotten.

O'BRIEN: Her life, just you see people slowly start to recover, and she's not there yet.

(CROSSTALK)

SHEEHY: ... life spiraled out of control because she had a child three days after her husband's last phone call to her in which he said, Pray for me. Now, she couldn't allow herself to pray for him except to pray for him to come home because she couldn't accept that he was gone. Of course, she didn't get any remains back for a long time so she didn't have any proof.

And finally, her 2-year-old began to resent the new baby and think that if the new baby in a way that Daddy would come back. And that was when serious issues rose. And Pat seized the situation. She got her children into -- the 2-year-old into sand tray therapy and play therapy.

And then she has been wresting with her faith in a way that's quite touching. We had a meeting with Oklahoma City widows and Middletown widows last week, and Pat said, I'm so worried if I no longer believe, will that mean I can't be reunited with my husband? And a widow from Oklahoma City said, I think God would know where that doubt is coming from.

O'BRIEN: Gosh, you know, it's just an incredible book. And I just love the profiles of all of the people, not just widows, really everyone in that town.

Thank you for joining us.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: It's called "Middletown America." Thanks.

SHEEHY: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 9, 2003 - 09:18   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Writer Gail Sheehy is famous for marking life's passages. Her latest work may have been her most challenging, though. It's about a New Jersey community that was devastated by the September 11 attacks. Middletown, New Jersey was an emotional "Ground Zero" after losing 50 people in the World Trade Center attack. Gail Sheehy's new book tells the town's story and it's called "Middletown America: One Town's Passage From Trauma to Hope."
Gail Sheehy joins us this morning. Nice to see you. This is a beautiful book.

GAIL SHEEHY, AUTHOR, "MIDDLETOWN AMERICA": Thank you.

O'BRIEN: And it must have been so difficult to write because you are right in the mid of people's lives at the worst possible moment. Was it?

SHEEHY: Well, yes. And I have to tell you that honestly that for the first 17 months of research and living part time in Middletown, I didn't know if there was going to be any light at the end of the tunnel for any of these 50 people that I was following.

But by the 18th month, somehow, the first tentative steps, turning corners and those people then gave hope to others who were in their same support groups. And the town began to come together. You know, Middletown, there was no middle.

But gradually, people found ways to reach out and show their neighbors they didn't know before that they really cared.

O'BRIEN: It is not an exaggeration to say this town was just devastated by the 9/11 attacks because so many people, of course, because of its location, worked downtown in Manhattan and then would commute back and forth and have their families in Middletown.

Was that pretty much why you picked that as the emotional Ground Zero?

SHEEHY: Well, that obvious fact that 50 people were lost in that immediate area. But also it was the idealized American suburb and it says a lot about where America was at the time that we had these attacks, where people didn't necessarily know their neighbors or think they needed community.

And when this tragedy happened they had to go back to what made us great as a country to begin with, helping each other.

O'BRIEN: How soon after the attacks did you start spending time in Middletown and start...

SHEEHY: A couple of weeks.

O'BRIEN: So that soon?

SHEEHY: Yes.

O'BRIEN: And what was it like?

SHEEHY: People were walking around like zombies. There was still a cloud of smoke from the Trade Center over Middletown. The kids would wake up every morning. And the young kids were listening to things about Osama bin Laden. And when they saw the picture they thought he liked like "Sourman" from "The Lord of the Rings."

So it was six month the town was in depression. One of the pastors said, We were dead men walking. And then the anger started bubbling up and anger's an energizer. So people bike list Christian Brightwiser (ph) gathered together with three other widows and they began taking the SUV to Washington and banging on doors for congressman saying, We need an investigation. How could this have happened?

O'BRIEN: It is amazing to see how these widows -- and a lot of the book's focus, but not all of it, is on these relatively young women whose lives changed. And they after time just pick up and run with the ball and say, I want to learn about the laws. I want to understand where the money's being spent, things like that.

One young woman says to you, Where is the book for a 30-year-old widow with a 2-year-old whose husband was killed by terrorists? Like there is no guide book for me so I've got to forge my own way.

SHEEHY: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: Were you impressed by these women? You must have been.

SHEEHY: Oh, I was. And I was with them as they grew. And I was also with them at the end of the day after they racketed around Congress and buttonholed John McCain and this one and that one. And then they would sit there with the takeout food and go back into longing for their husbands.

And one day, one of them, Patty Kazasik (ph) said, Well, we did the rally. Now can our husbands come home?

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: It kills you. And there's a line in the book where you say -- or someone I think says, Grieving is not linear, it's spiral. And you get this sense of -- and one woman, specifically I thought, Pat Wotten (ph).

SHEEHY: Wotten.

O'BRIEN: Her life, just you see people slowly start to recover, and she's not there yet.

(CROSSTALK)

SHEEHY: ... life spiraled out of control because she had a child three days after her husband's last phone call to her in which he said, Pray for me. Now, she couldn't allow herself to pray for him except to pray for him to come home because she couldn't accept that he was gone. Of course, she didn't get any remains back for a long time so she didn't have any proof.

And finally, her 2-year-old began to resent the new baby and think that if the new baby in a way that Daddy would come back. And that was when serious issues rose. And Pat seized the situation. She got her children into -- the 2-year-old into sand tray therapy and play therapy.

And then she has been wresting with her faith in a way that's quite touching. We had a meeting with Oklahoma City widows and Middletown widows last week, and Pat said, I'm so worried if I no longer believe, will that mean I can't be reunited with my husband? And a widow from Oklahoma City said, I think God would know where that doubt is coming from.

O'BRIEN: Gosh, you know, it's just an incredible book. And I just love the profiles of all of the people, not just widows, really everyone in that town.

Thank you for joining us.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: It's called "Middletown America." Thanks.

SHEEHY: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com