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By Erin Smith
September 11, 2001, will be a day that remains firmly ingrained the memories of everyone. For the Keaton family, it will be a day their family was forever changed when an air plane crashed into the World Trade Center building where their family member, Tamitha Freeman was working. On the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attack, the Keaton family boarded a bus and traveled to New York to commemorate the anniversary of the terrorist attack and the loss of Tamitha.
“It was very overwhelming to go there as a family,” said Earnestine Keaton, who is Tamitha Freeman’s aunt.
She said members of the family have been attending the memorial service in New York since the first anniversary. Keaton said that this year is the first year the family had planned a celebration of Tamitha’s life.
Keaton said the family, 50 in all, consisting of aunts, uncles and cousins, boarded a bus to New York to mark the 15th anniversary and to celebrate Tamitha’s life. Keaton said that the family had T-shirts made with a picture of Tamitha. She said there was no sadness, and there were plenty of family activities leading up to the ceremony and 9-11 Museum visit.
She said the family conducted their visit the way Tamitha would have handled it. Keaton said Tamitha’s son Xavier, took a group of his young cousins and they attended a basketball game at Madison Square Garden while another group of family members visited with a relative in a rehabilitation center.
Keaton said the family also visited a street that was named in honor of Tamitha.
She said it was finally time to talk about what the family is doing and what it meant for Tamitha.
The morning of the ceremony, the family arrived at the World Trade Center site. She said following an emotional ceremony, the family visited the Reflecting Pool and were able to see the wall where Tamitha’s name is emblazoned and make a tracing of the name.
Keaton said that Tamitha’s parents, Juanita and Randolph Freeman, married and left North Carolina to move to New York for employment. Keaton said that Tamitha was born in Brooklyn, NY and spent her summers with family in Columbus County, North Carolina.
Keaton said that in the summer, Tamitha would join the rest of the family working on the family’s farm cropping tobacco and enjoying the best that rural living had to offer.
Keaton said that she, too moved to New York for employment and was employed with New York Telephone Company and from her office building watched as crews constructed the Twin Towers that would become known as the World Trade Center.
“It was amazing to watch (the construction progress),” said Keaton.
Keaton said as she watched the construction progress from her vantage point at New York Telephone Company located then at 61 Broadway, she had no idea that one day she would actually be working in one of the World Trade Center buildings along with her niece, Tamitha.
Keaton said when her company relocated its offices to the World Trade Center, she worked in that building for about 17 years.
She said she was thrilled when Tamitha announced that she was taking a job with a firm that would result in her working in the same World Trade Center building. “The first day she was there, she came downstairs (to Keaton’s office) and I showed her around,” said Keaton.
Keaton recalled how she showed Tamitha around the building including the restaurants. “The building was self-contained,” said Keaton.
She explained that the subway had a terminal located underneath the World Trade Center complex and that in addition to offices and businesses, there were also restaurants located both inside and near the buildings.
“I showed her all of the places to eat,” said Keaton.
Keaton recalled fondly how her niece loved to eat and she loved to spend time with her friends as well as her family. She recalled how it was normal for the family to get together on a Friday night and play cards, socialize and catch up from the week’s activities.
She said sometimes Tamitha’s friends were amazed that her family would come together to eat and just spend time visiting. Keaton said this was a tradition that harkened back to the family’s Southern ties.
She said that Tamitha took the tradition and tweaked it for her age group and they would all get together on Friday after work and visit the Dew Drop Inn in Greenwich Village. There they could enjoy drinks and dinner after work.
Keaton said the weekend before the attack on September 11, 2001, Tamitha had traveled to visit with family in North Carolina. By this time she was 35 years old, engaged to be married, and the mother to a 16-month-old son, Xavier.
Keaton said the day Tamitha missed her original flight home and had returned late to New York from her visit to North Carolina, her father, Randolph Freeman asked if she had to work the next day to which Tamitha said yes. Keaton said her father suggested she take the next day off as her flight was late arriving. Keaton said that Tamitha told her father she had promised her boss she would come to work and she was going to abide by that promise.
Freeman worked for Aon in 2 World Trade Center. Newspaper accounts vary on what exactly happened inside 2 World Trade Center as employees but what is known is that Tamitha did not make it home on September 11, 2001.
Keaton said that on Sept. 11, she was watching the television when the first plane struck the World Trade Center. She said at first everyone thought it was a small plane that had somehow veered off course. She said that when the second plane hit, the reality of the situation was becoming clear.
“We didn’t know for hours on end,” said Keaton.
She said family members went out and searched and posted fliers of Tamitha and checked at local hospitals to no avail. Keaton said the family began to gather later in the day at Tamitha’s house.
“By the next day, we realized she was one of the missing,” said Keaton.
She said that Xavier was are almost immediately fo the loss fo his mom even at his young age. Keaton said that he was keenly aware for when he aunt Carla and grandparents were not around and would begin to fret until they returned.
Keaton said even now, Xavier will keep up with his family members and there whereabouts. He always calls and asks what they are doing and where they are going, said Keaton.
She said Xavier also personality traits similar to his mother. Keaton said Xavier is the organizer of activities with his friends and cousins. She said like his mother, he is always making sure everyone has everything they need before they embark on their planned activities.
Keaton said two years ago, Xavier had the honor of reading his mother’s name during the ceremony.
Keaton described this year’s anniversary as emotional.
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