Marion Britton was someone my family knew. Her brother was the Pastor at our church growing up and the families have remained close over the years. I have some very vivid memories of Marion at various functions at her brother’s churches over the years and at family functions. She was a single woman, so she was very involved with her nephews and her brother.
We knew Marion had gone down on Flight 93 a few days after 9/11. Her brother hadn’t known she was on the Flight until someone came to tell him during a prayer service he was conducting for the victims of that day at his church. Two days later, he was helping ordain a new group of Pastors, fresh out of seminary.
I read the transcripts yesterday and reports of the testimony. One terrorism expert recounted a phone call Marion made to a friend.
Up until now, it was easier to believe the stories of the heroism, and I’m not taking anything away from the stories of heroism on the flight. No one will ever know for sure what happened on the Flight nor who did what. Marion was a “fluffy” woman, and I had an image in my head of her sitting on one of the hijackers. Yeah, it made that day a lot easier to bear. Reading the testimony about her phone call was hard, to say the least. The L.A. Times reported on the testimony of Det. Sgt. Ray Guidetti of the New Jersey State Police who was assigned to an FBI anti-terrorism task force in Newark:
Marion Britton called a friend. Guidetti said the friend told her: "Don't worry. They'll probably take you to another country." But like the others, Britton was bracing for the worst. She said two people's throats had already been cut.
"It felt like the plane was turning and was going to crash," Guidetti said Britton told her friend. The friend then heard screams and the phone went dead.
Does hearing this make me angry? No. Mostly, I am just sad. Does it make me want to see Zacarias Moussaoui put to death? No, because that will make him a martyr in so many people’s eyes. Let him waste away in isolation somewhere.
And now I think about that movie being made. My visions that I had in my head of what happened to Marion are now gone. I wonder about the depiction in the film.
Everyone who’s saying it’s not right and it’s too early are right. I’m not even as close as many others to the situation and it’s been affecting me more than I thought it would.
Some things I think are better left to the imagination. Having the truth forced down our throats isn’t always the greatest thing.
© 2006 Patti Aliventi
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