Jack Grandcolas flipped on the garden hose and began dousing a backyard full of flowers at his Monterey County home. It felt kind of like a metaphor — a guy who’s spent the last 25 years publicly and privately grieving the loss of his wife Lauren in the September 11th attacks — somehow finally learning to bloom again. “I’ve had a lot of collateral damage in the last 25 years I’ve had to clean up,” Grandcolas said leaning back in a lawn chair. “But I’m feeling better than I ever have and happier than I ever have.” Lauren Grandcolas died on Flight 93 when it crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania on September 11th 2001. Her husband Jack has spent the last 25 years talking about his wife and the bravery of the passengers aboard the plane who tried to thwart the hijackers. It’s a significant pronouncement from Grandcolas, whose pregnant wife Lauren Grandcolas boarded United Flight 93 in Newark, New Jersey on September 11, 2001 to return to the couple’s San Rafael home. She’d flown back east to attend her grandmother’s funeral and to announce to the family that after 10 years of trying, she was three months pregnant. As hijackers took over Flight 93, she called her husband to let him know. Because of the difference in time zones, Jack was still asleep when she left her message on the couple’s answering machine, saying in a composed voice there was a problem with the plane and that she loved him. San Francisco 9 hours ago San Francisco marks 25 years since 9/11 with remembrance events 9/11 Sep 8 ‘Never forget,' 25 years later: Betty Ong, the flight attendant who made the first 9/11 call 9/11 Sep 10 9/11 hero Mark Bingham leaves lasting legacy in rugby As passengers rose up to retake the plane from the hijackers, it crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Watching the coverage from his home that morning, Grandcolas pieced together bits and pieces of news until the horror hit him. “I dropped to the ground because I knew that was the flight Lauren was calling from,” Grandcolas said, reciting the details he’s told countless times over the last quarter-century. Jack Grandcolas sits in the backyard of his Monterey County home. Grandcolas’ pregnant wife Lauren Grandcolas died on Flight 93 when it crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania on September 11th, 2001. Over the decades, Grandcolas has been a ready voice for the victims of 9/11 — willing to sit in front of cameras and share the details of the worst day and period of his life. He was devoted to talking about the bravery of the passengers who banded together to try and thwart the hijackers. Beyond the cameras, Grandcolas suffered grief, depression, loss, guilt, rage — the entire emotional range of a survivor. “The journey’s been a rough one for many, many years,” Grandcolas allowed. “It’s through the constant living in Lauren’s memory that’s helped. It’s through meeting my new wife Sarah that’s helped. It’s through meeting mental health professionals that’s helped.” In recent years, Grandcolas has shared his stories with a new audience; the people who were not yet born on September 11, 2001. He speaks in school assemblies, gymnasiums, libraries, telling the story of the Flight 93 passengers and their brave actions in trying to retake the plane, likely scuttling further tragedy as the plane hurled toward the U.S. Capitol or another high profile target. “A lot of these kids don’t have any point of reference,” Grandcolas said. “I found that out and have been giving talks to students to instill some inspiration to some of the good things that happened, some of the bravery, some of the heroes.” Grandcolas laments that only 25 states require teaching of 9/11 in public schools. It’s national history on one hand— he reasons — but on the other, it holds lessons that go well beyond what happened that day. “I think I can share some way of navigating problems, trauma,” he said, “inspiring them with Lauren’s story or the story of Flight 93 or just giving them a proper education to what it’s like to be a normal citizen thrust into a very intense situation.” In that sense, he sees his role not unlike survivors of Pearl Harbor who put a face on the attack and passed its lessons along to future generations. “The questions I get from these kids are unlike any questions I’ve ever been asked,” Grandcolas said, “and primarily I think because they have no living recollection of that day.” For the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Grandcolas will head to Shanksville, Pennsylvania like he does most years, to attend a ceremony at the sprawling memorial built in the field where Flight 93 crashed. The memorial stretches across bucolic, peaceful countryside, that otherwise offers no hint of the cataclysmic violence that occurred there. “If you hadn’t known the story, you would think it’s just a peaceful, beautiful area,” Grandcolas. Perhaps it’s another fitting metaphor for Grandcolas, who has long projected the composed demeanor of a loving, devoted husband, obscuring the inner turmoil and suffering he’s long endured. Yet 25 years later, Grandcolas feels his public and private emotions are now aligned. He appeared in the documentary called The Heroism and Resilience of 9/11, and wrote a book about Lauren and the passengers of Flight 93 called Like a River to the Sea. He feels the joy of his marriage to his new wife, Sarah Hopkins. And his guardian angel Lauren is always on his shoulder. It seems there in his backyard full of flowers, Grandcolas has truly figured out how to bloom again. “I’m finally to a place where I’m happy again,” he said above the stream of cascading water. ...read more read less