Howard County Families of 9/11 Victims Still Grieving Despite bin Laden's Death

Ron F. Golinski was a retired Army colonel who had gone on to work in the Pentagon. Denis P. Germain was a New York City firefighter who was not supposed to be working on September 11, but had spent the night at his station. Sarah Miller Clark was a middle-school teacher traveling with a student on an American Airlines flight to California.

Their loved ones have grieved for nearly a decade. For almost 10 years they have known that the terrorist organization al-Qaida was behind the 9/11 attacks, known that thousands have given their lives in the wars that ensued, and known that while many of those responsible had been captured or killed, the biggest name remained.

No more.

Osama bin Laden, the longtime leader of al-Qaida, is dead, killed in a nighttime raid in Pakistan in which a group of United States commandos brought nearly a decade’s worth of searching to a close with symbolic retribution. 

The loved ones of those who died on 9/11 know this. But they also know that bin Laden’s death won’t bring anyone back to life, nor will it bring an end to the extended war on terrorism.

“I’m glad he’s dead,” said Irene Golinski, “but it doesn’t really change anything. It doesn’t put closure on what happened to our lives.”

Ron Golinski was a 60-year-old Columbia man who’d retired from his military days but returned to work as a civilian at the Pentagon.

His body was never found after the plane crashed into that building.

Sarah Clark, a 65-year-old also from Columbia, had been a teacher for nearly three decades. On that Tuesday morning in 2001, she was chaperoning a student from Backus Middle School in Washington, D.C., to a science conference in the California city of Santa Barbara.

They were on American Airlines Flight 77, a flight that had departed from Dulles International Airport en route to Los Angeles. Hijackers turned the plane around and crashed it into the Pentagon.

John Milton Wesley of Columbia had been friends with Clark for 27 years. They’d been a couple for seven.

“We were getting married Dec. 22 of 2001,” Wesley said.

Even with bin Laden’s death, the feelings of loss are still raw, he admitted.

Sept. 11 “is perhaps the most egregious incident of its kind to hit American soil. That puts you in a very special category, having gotten ‘The Call.’ You get the call, you can’t get away. I’m getting beyond it and trying to move on.”

Denis Germain, 33, was a firefighter in New York City with family ties to Howard County. His cousin, Michele Malley Shultz, lives in Clarksville.

“We had the kind of relationship that, when you get together, it’s like no time has really passed,” Shultz said.

Shultz had last seen Germain in December 2000 after her father had passed away. Denis Germain was named after her dad.

Shultz was able to reach family members in the afternoon on 9/11. One of her cousins, Denis’ brother Brian, was also a firefighter and had been away from the firehouse when the planes struck the World Trade Center, family members said. Denis was also okay; he’d called his girlfriend and said so, according to the family.

Except it was a miscommunication—Denis hadn’t contacted his girlfriend. He’d slept overnight at the station into his day off, had been called into action and was missing. His body would be recovered nearly seven months later, on April 9, 2002.

Germain’s burial meant his family could get closure that others were not able to have, Shultz said. They still carried sadness and anger, all while trying to move forward with life and attempting to take care of the rest of their family members.

“I always had this hope that [bin Laden] would be brought to justice,” Shultz said. “I wasn’t sure that I would see it. It was so completely devastating that this man could get away with everything he did and could still be walking around.”

The death of bin Laden brings relief and satisfaction, but Shultz is not elated, she said.

“It doesn’t change anything,” Shultz said. “But the satisfaction is there, and that closure now that he’s gone. I know there’s probably many more coming up the ranks, but he was pure evil.”

Ron F. Golinski, 60. Denis P. Germain, 33. Sarah Miller Clark, 65. Their loved ones, and those of the thousands who died that day, have grieved for nearly a decade.

Their grieving will continue much longer.  And so, too, will the fight against terrorism, they recognize.

“I still have a lot of concerns for all the servicemen and women in the Middle East,” Wesley said. “This is really a beginning of a new era for us. I’m hoping people remain vigilant.”

“I talked with my children, and we all are glad that [bin Laden] was killed,” Irene Golinski said. “But there’s other people who are going to continue with terrorism. It’s not the end of terrorism.”