KAYSVILLE, Utah — For Margaret Wahlstrom, a piece of steel from the World Trade Center represents something far greater than its physical weight.
"It is so strong, but I really believe that the human spirit is stronger than this," said Wahlstrom.
On September 11, 2001, Margaret received a call from her brother-in-law asking to speak with her husband, Norm. He delivered devastating news: his mother, Mary Alice Wahlstrom, and his sister, Carolyn Beug, were aboard American Airlines Flight 11.
"Like everybody in America, like everybody in the world, you know, the first thing that happens is shock. How could this happen?" Margaret said.
Norm's reaction was immediate grief.
"He just started crying," she recalled. "He said, 'This is so evil because that's all he could think of. This just has to be evil. It's just not right. It's, it's incomprehensible.'"
Mary Alice and Carolyn had been flying from Boston after helping Carolyn's twin daughters, who had just turned 18, move into the Rhode Island School of Design. Carolyn called from the plane just before takeoff.
"She said we got on the plane, but I had to talk my way on because they were kind of late and they were shutting the door," Margaret said.
Wahlstrom described the two women as extraordinary people.
"Mary Alice, it was Norm's mother, and she was the epitome, example of goodness in a grandmother," she remembered. "She was an intelligent, productive, amazing person. She had worked for hospice. Aunt Carolyn was dynamic. She was a force to be reckoned with."
The day itself was consumed by confusion and grief.
"It was a very confusing day. Because at the end of the day, when my husband and I sat down alone after everybody had left, there's still the reality, and he says, 'I don't know what to do. I don't know how to go on without my mom and my sister,'" said Margaret. "They were very close, and you do, and you figure out how to pay tribute to them with your lives."
Margaret worked to get a 9/11 memorial dedicated in Kaysville. She now shares a piece of steel from the World Trade Center with history classes, asking students to pass it around and feel its weight.
"You know it's been 25 years, and it seems like yesterday. It's symbolic to me, and when I show this to the history class, I tell them I want to pass this around. I need to see how heavy it is," Margaret said.
Despite the enduring pain, Wahlstrom said she chooses to focus on what has emerged from that loss.
"I think more than anything, I reflect on all the good that I've seen since that time," she shared. "The pain is always there, the horror, the loss. The way it changed our world. But the bigger the event, the more difficult the trial, the more horrific the pain, the more sweet the good things that happen."
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