CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - As I was getting video of the Firefighter Steven Coakley Memorial Foundation flag display this morning at the Palmer Building, I was looking around for people who might best tell the story of why the display was there and what it meant.
I was tapped on the shoulder and turned around to see a familiar face. Our vending machine guy at WBTV Richard Martin was behind me. I looked at him surprised to see him there and then all the pieces came together pretty fast. Richard has the kind of accent where you don't really need to ask where he's from. The New York oozes out in every word.
But I never knew Richard had any connection to 9-11. I guess in hindsight I was pretty silly to think he didn't. He told me it was part of the reason he moved to Charlotte from New York. His vending machine company took a huge hit when the economy tanked after the towers fell. Then he told me about his friend Bruce.
"He was a firefighter, with a firefighters mustache. One of those blue collar guys that makes me sound like a southerner," Richard said.
FDNY's finest and one of Richard's close friends Bruce Gary went up one of the towers after the planes hit. The only thing they found in the rubble was his ring.
This was one of those days where 9-11 gets very real again. It's almost easy, even Richard said, to get caught up in the day to day and forget that it wasn't a horrible movie or one of the countless documentaries that plays on this day every year.
Today made me remember not only that I won't ever forget, but that there are still so many thousands of people that still hurt every day. Not just on 9-11.
Richard says he comes to the Charlotte memorial every year and doesn't talk to many people. He just walks along the flags and remembers his friend. And makes a silent pledge to him, that he'll never forget.
