I had to deal with a loss this week.  The loss of a truly wonderful friend.  The tears and the pressure in my throat and chest.  The way it makes you look at life in a different perspective. 

I didn't know a single person that was killed on 9/11.  But I certainly felt it.  I felt the loss, just as I do today with the death of my true friend.   The senselessness.  The hurt.  The blanket of sadness across the country.  I sent so many prayers.  I grieved with the families. 

I have been given a huge honor.  Huge.  To write about a man who was killed that day.  I've done my homework, and I think I get a feeling about what type of man he was.

Lieutenant Colonol Kip Paul Taylor.

He was a Michigander, like myself, and he was 38, which is about my age.  He went to Northern Michigan University, which is a school I applied to and was accepted to. 

Lt. Col Taylor was an Army man, and he made it all the way to the Pentagon as a military assistant.   Before coming to the Pentagon, he served in both Germany and Honduros. 

His office was in the outside ring of the Pentagon, and was hit by American Flight 77.

He had just sent an e-mail, just about an hour before his death where he said:

"After kids, there are days that just get going when you say, 'Hi honey, I'm home "

 "My conclusion is that what we do until that moment pales in comparison to what we do after that point in the day."

He and his wife Nancy had a son, Dean, and she was 8-months pregnant with their second child at the time of his death.  Luke Taylor was born on October 25th, 2001.

Lt. Col Kip Paul Taylor loved his family and was an all-around good guy from the midwest.  He was 6'5" and loved to play golf.  Another example of a great American who was killed that day.

Their family's sad story does not end there.  When I was reading about him and his family, I was so saddened to read that Lt. Col. Taylor's wife, Nancy, passed away from cancer in 2003.   She found out about this terminal cancer upon the birth of their second son, Luke.  

Lt. Col Taylor's brother, Dean, and his wife, took the boys in to raise them.  They will also have college scholarships from the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. 

As I said earlier, it is a true honor for me to have been given this opportunity to write about the Taylor family.  It has been a very trying five years for them.  Those two little boys and their Aunt and Uncle will certainly be in my prayers.

Sherry

If you'd like to read more blogs with tributes to every other person killed on 9/11/2001, please go to the dcroe.com website.  You will find a list there -- a very, very long list.  Scroll through it and get a feeling for all those lives we lost.  And THANK YOU DCROE ---- for doing this wonderful thing.