10 THE QUEENS COURIER • SEPTEMBER 9, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Bayside 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 offi cer
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.
“Th at 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 fi rst 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, ‘Th ank God he’s
there and helping,’” Miller said.
Mitchel Wallace died on Sept. 11, 2001, after running into the fi rst tower to collapse in an eff ort to help as many people
as possible.
“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 fi rst aid to
the victims of the attack. Th e
last photograph ever taken of
Wallace showed him helping a
woman badly injured before he
ran back inside — when the fi rst
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 unidentifi ed
victims in a hospital for treatment.
Miller and her family were
optimistic, but aft er 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
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. “Th ey told
everyone that the air was fi ne
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.”
The last photo of Mitchel Wallace taken right before he went back into the
World Trade Center. Michele Miller, her two kids, and her brother Mitchel Wallace.
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