{"id":1099,"date":"2006-09-21T16:21:42","date_gmt":"2006-09-21T20:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hub-dev.bates.edu\/magazine\/?page_id=1099"},"modified":"2017-09-06T11:38:51","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T15:38:51","slug":"rachel-carr-goodrich-90","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/back-issues\/y2006\/fall06\/features\/why-911-stories-matter\/rachel-carr-goodrich-90\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Carr Goodrich ’90"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Rachel Carr Goodrich ’90<\/p><\/div>\n

At six seconds before 9:03 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, United Airlines Flight 175, with Peter Morgan Goodrich \u201989 and 64 others on board, flew into the south tower of the World Trade Center.
\nAt that instant, Rachel Carr Goodrich \u201990 paid lifetime dues to join a club she can never leave.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tragedy when any woman is widowed at age 33. But when the husband becomes part of an iconic American tableau, the young widow is left to play out a complex and painfully public role. \u201cIt is a double-edged sword,\u201d she says. \u201cEverybody understands and is so kind to me, which is comforting and reassuring, but at the same time you can\u2019t get away from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Sudbury, Mass., where she still lives in the house she and Peter bought in 1997, Goodrich is nourished by the comfort of a community that has embraced the families of the three residents killed on Sept. 11. On the second anniversary of the attacks, the town dedicated a memorial garden. \u201cIt has been an amazing experience to have that much support, have people care that much, and see people come together and help
\nothers.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut some days I do wish it would go away. Other days it\u2019s a wonderful thing. Some days I wish I could just sleep through the whole day.\u201d
\nOver the years, Goodrich has intentionally tried to live outside the glare of Sept. 11. \u201cIt\u2019s wonderful if you have the courage to be out there. I am not that type of person. In terms of being the center of attention, I prefer not to,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Wide recognition for her part in an iconic event makes it difficult to move forward, Goodrich adds. For her, moving forward means preserving what she had.
\n\u201cI spend a lot of time remembering the gift I was given,\u201d she says. \u201cI spent 15 years with Peter, and he was one of the most amazing people I ever knew. I try to live as he would live, do things as he would do things, and treat people as he would treat people. He brought out the best in me and he continues to do it every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her freshman year, Rachel Carr and sophomore Peter Goodrich lived on the same floor in Page Hall. \u201cI fell in love with him at first sight,\u201d she says. \u201cMy roommate, Monya Smith \u201990, and I spent an inordinate amount of time learning his schedule and trying to put me in his path. Peter always said it was fate that we met. My roommate and I laugh about that \u2014 we worked really hard to make \u2018fate\u2019 work.\u201d
\nCarr and Goodrich were married Oct. 10, 1992. On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, they both went off to work: she to her job at a Boston bank; Peter, a software company manager, to Logan Airport to catch a West Coast flight. \u201cPeter was late for his flight, which was not uncommon,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in a meeting, and someone walked in and told me a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I was a believer that things like this don\u2019t happen to me, so I was thinking, \u2018Oh my God, these poor people.\u2019 I never envisioned that I could be one of them. My boss immediately started to go online to check Peter\u2019s flight, and at one point I couldn\u2019t get hold of Peter. I got more and more nervous, so I called United, and they put me on hold for a very long time. They finally told me that the plane was missing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even five years later, Goodrich can give only a halting description of that day. \u201cThe unbelievable sadness. It was the first time in my entire life I was not able to put into words how I felt. It is a day that I cannot even begin to describe to people. There
\nare no words. The emotion…it was un-believable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter Goodrich\u2019s remains were identified, and in December 2002 the family held a small, private funeral in a tiny cemetery in Sudbury, about a 10-minute walk from the home he and Rachel shared. \u201cI never realized how much that would be a healing process for me,\u201d she says. \u201cI was able to sit down and process things that I was not willing to think about or feel.\u201d It is fulfilling, she says, both to have honored Peter and to have a place to go and remember him.<\/p>\n

In June 2004, Goodrich left her banking job. These days she is overseeing extensive renovations to her house and assessing the direction of her life.
\n\u201cSix years ago, if you had asked me if I could survive something like this, I would\u2019ve told you, no way,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I did. I feel like I understand myself much better. I have a much better sense of what\u2019s important. I don\u2019t take anything for granted. I try very hard to tell the people that I care about how much I care about them. I try to do my best to be kind and I try not to let little things get me worked up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to live a more real life. I used to work so many hours and was so involved in my job. That was great and I loved it but I wasn\u2019t really tapping into all the aspects of who I was. Now I try to do a better job of that. I adore Peter, and I wish he could see who I\u2019ve become.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At six seconds before 9:03 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, United Airlines…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":0,"parent":1098,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_dimp_site_id":"","_dimp_override_contact":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"class_list":["post-1099","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1099"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12956,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1099\/revisions\/12956"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}