Huddled with colleagues on the cobblestone in front of Delmonico’s.
The island rumbled with the South Tower giving way to her damages.
Ominous and iconic dust engulfed downtown like a plague riding the morning breeze.
“It’s coming!” she shrieked; covered, we walked.
FDR to the Brooklyn Bridge.
The antenna tilted and the North Tower was reduced to The Pile.
Eighteen years later, I lost my best friend on September 11th.
His body succumbed to different attacks that produced an eerily similar burning from within.
No foretelling. No goodbyes. No last laughs.
Reminiscing follows a pattern: pause, reflect, smile.
Brendan created those kinds of memories.
Fiercely loyal and eternally positive.
Committed to bringing the mood up.
Shirt off his back, ready to listen or throw down in your defense.
Football camp, summer jobs, ski trips and road trips.
Beach days and concerts, weddings and raves.
Roommates, commuters, wingmen and teammates.
Thick. And. Thin.
There is one particular quote that sounds in my head most often still. Almost four decades of trading classic lines in every possible situation, and this one captures a multitude of sentiments in five words.
“You all right? You’ll be all right.”
When you were down and wallowing, or consumed with negativity. Or just plain bitchin’ about some injustice when life really has dealt you a decent hand. He would cock his head slightly, give his confident half smile and pat you on the shoulder as he asked “you all right?” Only to answer for you “you’ll be all right.” It was more a directive to snap out of it and suck it up – life was not so bad.
That was Brendan. That is Brendan. That will forever be Brendan.
Il Punto: People often reflect on their deceased loved ones as having gotten out of this world at a good time. Others hypothesize about corpses twisting in coffins. What I know about humankind, after globally enduring eighteen months filled with the fear of sickness and death: We are all right. We will be all right.
Brendan Michael Reilly
31 July 1978 – 11 September 2019
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