By:Carrie James
That fateful Tuesday, East Meadow resident David Kaplan could think of nothing more than finally returning back to work.
He had spent the previous week sitting Shiva for his father-in-law, Samm Kirshner, who had passed away Sept. 1 and had hoped returning to a "normal" life of working, that he might better be able to cope with the tragedy that occurred in his family.
Little did he, or thousands of other New Yorkers know that it would be that day, Sept. 11, that terrorists would attack, crashing two planes into the World Trade Center. For Kaplan, it was just that day of the month where he took the train into the World Trade Center station to visit a client who lived in Battery Park City.
"I kept saying to myself, Tuesday, Tuesday I go back to work," Kaplan said. "I do this only once a month. Only this time, as I get off the train the whole platform shook. They said a bomber was attacking the building and to get back on the train."
Once on the train, however, Kaplan said the conductor told passengers to exit because the train was no longer in service. Again, he found himself on the platform, trying to find out what was going on above ground as well as an exit out of the basement. Only one turnstile was in operation, and passengers had to file out one by one. Kaplan said he was one of the lucky ones near the exit, otherwise, he said, he might never have made it out of the terminal alive.
Climbing to the lobby, Kaplan found himself in even more confusion and chaos. Police pushed him and others toward an exit and World Trades Center employees were running around, trying to get out also. Still, Kaplan said, he didn't know what had happened.
"I'm in the lobby of the World Trade Center and I'm trying to get outside," he said. "I get outside and there are more police with megaphones ordering us to stay close to the walls and cross the street. Finally I look up and see the World Trade Center in flames. I don't know what's going on, but I'm just trying to get away. I'm literally climbing over bodies, whether they are dead or just trampled in the rush to get away.
"I'm crying," Kaplan continued. "I took out my honeymoon picture and kissing it. I was talking with Samm (his deceased father-in-law) saying 'you can't let this happen.' I thought I was going to die."
He didn't though, and managed to walk from the lobby of the World Trade Center to PACE University, nearby, to call his wife Abby Kaplan.
"I called her and told her 'I'm okay. I'm alive,' and she thought I was joking," Kaplan said. "She had been in the shower and didn't know what had happened. I told her to turn on the TV. Then I sat on the top steps of PACE and had to decide what to do. I thought to go to my client in Battery Park City, but thought I just needed to get home. I saw people crossing the Brooklyn Bridge on foot and decided that's what I was going to do."
At the bridge, Kaplan was paired with a young African American male from Queens, and they made the long trek across the bridge that connects Manhattan to Brooklyn.
"I kept saying 'are we going to be safe on the other side' and then we turned around and see a plane hit the second building," Kaplan said. "I never went to Vietnam, but felt like I just came back from a war. I got four kids. I got to get home. I just wanted to go home."
Finally, Kaplan made it home. He crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, made it to a train station and went home. Now, he said he is living with the aftermath of the horrible things he saw and the nightmares that haunt him. He still hears the screams of the people and the wailing of the ambulances and fire trucks.
"Through the whole thing I kept thinking I'm going to die," he said. "I keep thinking of what ifs. What if I didn't get off that train? What if I was five minutes later? What if I had been in any other car, I might not have made it out alive. I just want to get it out of my head and I can't. We are all trying to mourn the loss of a wonderful man (Samm Kirshner) and I can't get this crap out of my head. I've got to do something. The bottom line is, I'm just thankful to be alive."
