Angie Remembers

Remember Sept. 11, 2001, after the planes crashed into the Twin Towers in Manhattan when you started calling to find out if family and friends were okay? 

Angie Higgins (top photo), the wife of Joe E. Higgins, Jr., now the town’s second selectman, but then a special assistant to the New York City fire commissioner, remembers her every action that day. On this 9/11, she told a compelling story to a rapt audience at Branford’s 9/11 commemoration at Fire Headquarters. 

As she spoke she went back in time, reliving a day in which the lives of her husband and her daughter were threatened. Her daughter, Michele, then 28, had just arrived at her office in lower Manhattan, two buildings away from the World Trade Center Towers, when the first airplane crashed into the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. between the 93rd and 99th floors. The second crash took place at 9:03 a.m. when a plane crashed into the South Tower between the 77th and 85th floors. 

Police Capt. Geoff Morgan (pictured), the master of ceremonies at the Branford 9/11 event, put the morning’s line-up together.

Ava Cosgrove, the first selectman’s daughter, sang the National Anthem. 

Police Chief Kevin Halloran led the Pledge of Allegiance. 

As Morgan began thinking about the 9 – 11 event, he wondered about the perspective of a wife of a 9/11 responder on that day. What were the thoughts of Angie Higgins, he asked himself. ​“Being home at that time and being worried to death about you,” Morgan said as Higgins sat nearby. Morgan asked Mrs. Higgins to speak at the ceremony. She was reluctant. Then First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove prevailed upon her and she agreed.

More than 150 people attended the outdoor ceremony at Fire Headquarters, including student and adult musical groups (think fife and drum corps), firefighters, police officers, elected and appointed officials, and residents.

Branford High School’s new choral director, Mike Martone, who replaced Cathyann Roding, directed the high school’s Music Makers.

Here St. Mary School Fife and Drum Corps and the Stony Creek Fife and Drum Corps play their flutes. 

Under sunny, cool skies, Mrs. Higgins rose to speak at this, the 16th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center.

While Joe Higgins was heading out over the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan, after getting the call, ​“May Day, May Day, we have a plane into the Tower,”Angie Higgins was not at home waiting, as Capt. Morgan thought. She was at her office in Manhattan, learning a new computer program. 

At this 9/11 ceremony, we learned that their daughter, Michele Schettino, was working at her office located on the 35th floor of a major firm, two buildings away from the World Trade Center. 

Recounting the Hours 

“So like so many of you that day I was seated at my desk (at work) trying to learn a computer program named Excel. My co-worker raced into my office to tell me a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I knew Joe had the commissioner-wide liaison citywide duty and would be immediately responding. I also knew that our daughter, Michele, was probably arriving at her desk.

“I telephoned her and could hear all the confusion. Naturally, she was frightened. As I was trying to calm her I heard the deafening sound of the second plane crashing into the tower. All I remember telling Michele was to immediately find an interior stairwell and to walk away on the East Side as far as she could and to call me as soon as she was safe.

“Sixteen years later I still feel the same intense anxiety I felt waiting for her call. About two hours later, Joe called me. His voice told me he was in so much pain.”

Then Angie began to cry softly as she said she might. ​“All he wanted to know was where Michele was? Was she safe? He gave me a private communications telephone number and [asked me] to contact him. Then he would provide transportation for her and any other co-workers who might need a ride out of Manhattan.

“About an hour later Michele called me, crying hysterically. She wanted to know about her dad. I tried to reassure her that her dad was okay. He was coming to get her. She was so distraught. She could only tell me she was at a bar on 29th street on the East Side, drinking bourbon shots. I called the number Joe had given me and gave the info to the officer and asked him to relay this information to Joe on the citywide radio.

“Then I decided to go home and to wait for Joe and Michele. Honestly my head was pounding and my heart was aching as I watched the news reports. At around 1 p.m. Michele walked into our home. She cried and talked about seeing so many people running as she saw the devastation in lower Manhattan. And this has had a terrific impact on her. She still suffers today from post-traumatic shock.

“I can still hear her on the telephone years later at 2 a.m., saying she couldn’t breathe. I cannot imagine the depth of suffering the families and friends of all of those who lost families.

The Journey

“Joe dropped several of Michele’s co-workers at the bus terminal at the George Washington Bridge and continued back to Manhattan. The next time I saw him was early the next day. He questioned why God had left him and taken so many of his friends. I did my best to console him and support him.”

Higgins (pictured) recalled those nine colleagues who went with him that day and never came back. Only he survived.

In the days and weeks and months later, she said, Joe became the person to return personal belongings to widows and families of those who perished. ​“He consoled them and remembered the good times he had shared with these now-gone firefighters. There were so many tears but just as many laughs. Joe can share so many of the stories following the tragic events of 9/11. In my mind one stands out.

“It was 2006 and we were invited to the high school graduation for James Garrity. James was 12 years when his dad, deputy chief Ed Garrity, perished at the World Trade Center. Now 17, James took Joe aside and said ​‘What was my Dad like at the fire house? Did the men like him?’

“It took all of Joe’s inner strength to answer this young man’s question. That night I told Joe how very proud I was of him, that indeed God had a plan for him to help those left behind. So now today I wish to encourage all of our youngsters to help each other by staying vigilant and aware… To all those who perished on 9/11, rest peacefully, she said as she ended her talk. Sustained applause followed. 

Joe Higgins echoed his wife’s thoughts.

He was in his office in Brooklyn, on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge, when he was notified about the first plane hitting the tower. ​“I left with a group of emergency responders. I got in the elevator with a total of nine of us, various ranks, and various cultures. We were all there for one reason: to kill that enemy and get him out of our face. And that’s where we are going. Unfortunately, out of nine, came one. Me. The others never came back. It is tough to think about it. I think about it every day. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about it,” he said near tears.

Cosgrove (pictured) spoke of Branford’s giving. ​“We have these events to come together. It speaks well of the town of Branford. It makes it that special place we know and love.

“Sixteen years ago we as a nation made a vow to never forget, to never forget the events of Sept. 11, 2001. And to remember and honor those who lost their lives. We come together for first responders with an empathy we feel is engrained in our minds forever.”

Cosgrove, too, spoke of the younger generation, those who did not bear witness. ​“We need to teach them,” he said. 

Joe Higgins told the youngsters at the ceremony. ​“Support all first responders. Stop and say thank you for what you do. Tell them how you feel from the heart.”

Ted Aub recited the Marine Corp blessing. ​“As we have in past years, we gather today to respectfully reflect on the events that happened on this date sixteen years ago. While time has not erased our horror and anger it has allowed us to realize that further violence only perpetuates this type of behavior and takes us from our mission. We must never allow anyone to define our way of life within our borders and in our alliance with God.”

The Rev. Bill Keane, the police department’s chaplain, and the senior minister of the First Baptist Church of Branford, knows ground zero well. He spent nine months there following the September attacks. In 2016 he brought with him the denim jacket he wore at ground zero, keeping it at his side. The jacket seemed to bear the dust of those days. He spoke at this year’s gathering as well. The terror attack on the World Trade Center killed 3,356 people in the Towers, including 343 firefighters and 60 police and port authority officers.

The Rev. Sharon Gracen, the fire department’s chaplain, put it this way: ​“Gracious and loving God, whose care extends to the whole world, we ask your blessing as we gather in solemn remembrance of a day in which hatred shattered lives but courage shone through the dust and debris. The call of duty was answered with valor, honor and sacrifice. We carry indelible images….”

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