Photograph courtesy of Margaret Hoge
Coping with Disaster: Willow Glen resident Margaret Hoge serves snacks and beverages as a volunteer for the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross in New York during a patriotic rally after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
WG woman gives hope in wake of WCT tragedy
By Sheila Sanchez
It's been four months since the September terrorist attacks, yet Willow Glen senior activist Margaret Hoge thinks it's too soon to forget.
"Civilian lives were lost," she says, becoming emotional, her hands shaking. "It impacted so many people. It scarred our nation forever."
Pausing to wipe away tears, she adds, "It was very emotional. When I looked at the devastation I was reminded of the lives that were lost and the families left behind."
The 61-year-old retired schoolteacher, whose last teaching years were in the Evergreen School District, continues, "It was such a tragedy. It wasn't war time, yet so many innocent people were lost."
The volunteer with the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross in San Jose, assisted in the recovery effort in Jersey City, N.J., at the Family Assistance Center.
In November, the center helped thousands with meals, snacks, emotional support and health services. Although, at first, she was disappointed she didn't get to assist at Ground Zero, from Jersey City, she saw cranes across the Hudson River. She took the subway twice into Manhattan, went to the Empire State Building and then took a 20-minute cab ride to the devastation site. She now considers the area a sacred burial ground. There, she prayed for the families whose relatives were killed during the attack.
An experienced disaster relief volunteer, Hoge tolerated the devastation with strength and resolve. She knew she had to be tough to handle the enormity of this particular mission. She's participated in recovery efforts led by the American Red Cross beginning with the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, then the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the 1994 floods in Albany, Ga., Hurricane George in Jackson, Miss., in 1998 and then to Pensacola, Fla., after Hurricane Opal. She's volunteered in a total of 16 national disaster relief efforts.
Before Sept. 11, she spent three weeks in West Virginia after the July floods.
About the experience she wrote in a journal, "All disasters have their own situations that are difficult to comprehend. With all the dead plants, mud in homes and water sitting in yards, some flowers made it through, from large hibiscus to small impatiens. It seemed the destructive waters just parted and bypassed a little bit of beauty for us to observe."
But now she would volunteer in the recovery effort of the nation's worst disaster, leaving Oct. 23 and returning Nov. 11, a total of three weeks at the Family Assistance Center. She says families affected by the terrorist attack came to the center to receive counseling and services offered by the Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Volunteers helped victims find jobs, receive Social Security benefits and acquire death certificates. "They were so delicate and vulnerable, and they had to go through so much in moments of darkness," she wrote in a letter she now keeps in one of many scrapbooks about her experience on the East Coast.
Hoge says there were intense moments that made a profound impression on her. One was when she witnessed urns, filled with the ashes of those lost during the terrorist attack, brought to the center and covered with the American flag.
She said families of those killed during the attack met at Ground Zero for a memorial service and then about 1,200 of them came to the center for dinner. "I couldn't help wondering what the story was behind each person. It was all so quiet that evening there, and looking into their eyes told the story like nothing else could. The trauma and shock were there and the memories these clients have will never leave," she wrote in her letter.
The former educator, who taught elementary school for 20 years, says that to receive comfort she visited the center's "Remembrance Wall," where messages to deceased families and friends were left by those who missed them. "Just by reading a few messages, it didn't take me long to get things into perspective and to soon carry on with my duties with a positive outlook. When you see a young father holding a 6-month-old baby and know that he'll never have his picture taken again with his child or the child with his father, that can make you look at life in a whole new way."
Hoge, who's also a volunteer for the San Jose Police Department and belongs to the American Association of University Women, says her duties at the center included housekeeping and serving meals. It was an 11-hour-a-day job that left her emotionally drained but spiritually fulfilled after serving those less fortunate than she.
"I know I can help people," she says. "I know I can be of assistance and be sympathetic. It's emotionally draining, but there are needs to be met and I'm ready to do that."
Hoge was born and raised in New Hampton, Iowa. She moved to San Jose in 1969. She's lived in Willow Glen for 25 years and is married to Hal Hoge--a supportive husband who allows her the freedom to volunteer in as many recovery efforts she may wish to assist in. "He's so proud of me. When disasters strike he's the first one to start encouraging me to go."
Now that she's home, she confides that she still checks her watch regularly and thinks about those she helped. Her questions are whether they're eating, sleeping and getting along after the tragedy. She wonders if their hearts are healing and continues to pray for them so that one day they'll be able to move beyond Sept. 11.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
