WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES SEPTEMBER 9, 2021 7
One Queens family remembers their two 9/11 losses
BY JULIA MORO
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
Michele Miller dropped her 3-year-old
daughter off at preschool on the morning
of Sept. 11, 2001; she remembered
it being a beautiful day outside. Her brother,
Mitchel Wallace, was an EMT and court officer
from Bayside, and when she heard the news of a
terrorist attack at the World Trade Center, she
knew he would be there.
Wallace was 34 at the time and on his way to
work at the courts. When he got off the subway
in downtown Manhattan, both planes had already
struck the towers.
“That was always his thing — helping people,”
Miller said. “If something was happening, he
would run there. It was just his personality to
help.”
Miller said she wasn’t at all surprised to hear
her brother was one of the first responders at
the towers. She remembered feeling relieved
that Wallace was helping whoever he could
amidst the tragedy — she never expected the
towers to collapse.
“We weren’t even worried. We were thinking,
‘Thank God he’s there and helping,’” Miller said.
“Nobody was even thinking in a million years
what would eventually happen.”
With Wallace’s training as an EMT, he was doing
anything he could to provide first aid to the
victims of the attack. The last photograph ever
taken of Wallace showed him helping a woman
badly injured before he ran back inside — when
the first building collapsed.
As the day went on, Miller and her family
didn’t hear from Wallace. Miller said that photo
helped her and her family know Wallace didn’t
die for nothing — he died doing what he was
meant to do.
“We just felt really good knowing that he was
there for a reason, and he helped numerous
people survive,” Miller said. “He was doing what
he loved to do. We can’t say it makes it easier, but
it puts it into perspective.”
Miller remembered hoping for weeks that her
brother was one of the hundreds of unidentified
victims in a hospital for treatment. Miller and
her family were optimistic, but after weeks of
no sign of Wallace, they all had to come to the
conclusion that he had passed away and his body
wouldn’t be recovered under the rubble.
Not only did Miller lose her brother, but she
also lost her dad in 2016 due to lymphoma, one
of the cancers caused by the enormous clouds
of dust and smoke from the burning debris at
Mitchel Wallace died on Sept. 11, 2001, after running into the fi rst tower to collapse, as he tried to
help as many people as possible.
Ground Zero. Kenneth Wallace worked across
the street from the twin towers. Kenneth was
able to make it out of the chaos on 9/11, but
couldn’t escape the toxins in the air as he went
to work in the years to come.
“He was a secondary casualty to 9/11,” Miller
said. “They told everyone that the air was fine
and that they could go back to work. Guess what:
that was not the case.”
As Miller and her family look to the 20th anniversary,
Miller just wants everyone to remember
that day and the contributions so many brave
people made. However, she also dreads this time
of year as images and stories of the tragedy are
hard to escape.
“People shouldn’t forget and kids should learn
about it in school,” Miller said. “At the same time,
when someone like myself who lost a family
member, seeing these pictures and all I want to
do is get the weather, for us it’s a trigger. But I
want their stories to be told — you don’t want
them to die in vain. Every year we listen for
Wallace’s name to be called, and at least for that
moment in time, people are thinking about him.”
Michele Miller, her two kids, and her brother
Mitchel Wallace.
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