Tom Burnett boarded his flight just like he would have any other day, in the kind of innocence that can only happen before the foundations of a life are shaken by tragedy.
The Bloomington native was headed to San Francisco from Newark on Flight 93. You know that flight number. It was the one that was hijacked by four al-Qaeda terrorists and went down in a fiery blaze in Shanksville, Pa., because passengers who refused to give their power to terrorists stormed the cockpit.
The phone calls he made in the last moments of his life to his wife Deena are something she will never forget.
The couple was living in San Ramon, California, at the time, and Tom was working in New York. He was on his way home when Deena heard the telephone ring.
"I was cooking breakfast for our three daughters, the telephone rang, and it was Tom," Deena said. "He said 'I'm on United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco and the plane has been hijacked.'"
Tom went on to tell Deena that "they already knifed a guy and are trying to get into the cockpit; I need you to call the authorities."
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Tom hung up the phone, and Deena found herself in shock at what she had just been told.
"When he hung up the phone, my body just went into a stillness that I don't think I have ever felt. I could not move; I was absolutely terrified," she said.
She was watching television that morning and was aware of what was happening in New York. But now it wasn't television. It was real life.
Frantically flipping through the yellow pages, Deena tried to find who she could call for a hijacking, but eventually called 911. The operator connected her with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was then that Tom called her back.
Deena informed him what was happening in New York, and he told the people who were around him on Flight 93.
This was the second of three calls that Deena had with her late husband on the morning of Sept. 11, but the last was one that she would never forget.
"He told me that he was putting a plan together to take back the plane and not to worry, that everything would be okay," Deena said. "I asked who was helping him, and he said that there was a group of them waiting to take back the plane when they were over a rural area."
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When Tom asked how his girls were doing, Deena shared that they wanted to talk to him, to which he replied that he would 'speak to them later.' He expected to take back the plane and live to tell the tale.
"At one point, I just said, 'you need to sit down, be still, be quiet, and not draw attention to yourself,'" Deena said. "He yelled into the phone, 'NO, no, if they are going to drive this plane into the ground, we are going to do something.'"
After sitting in silence for a few minutes, Deena told him that she loved him. He replied, "don't worry, we're going to do something."
The last words she would ever hear him say.
20 years later
"Even though it's been 20 years, it's so easy to get caught back up in the emotion and the trauma of the morning. It is embedded in me, and it is a part of who I am in this stage of life," Deena shared.
For Deena, sharing the story of Tom's final moments are important because of the legacy that he left, fighting for others until the very end, never fearing for his own safety.
"He was not afraid, he was calm, he was very determined," Denna said.
When speaking over the phone, Tom was the one calming Deena down as the two talked through everything that was happening. In fact, Deena shared that he seemed more irritated than upset in their first call because his flight was "being delayed."
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"It was very much like a normal phone call that he and I would have during any part of the day," she said.
When it came to his plan, Deena knew that Tom was an effective leader and someone who had confidence. But, after learning that the plane had crashed, she was left shocked.
"Honestly, I was upset in the way that I felt like 'who was not following orders,'" she said. "I was upset that way as much as I was that my husband wasn't coming home."
This was one of the reasons why Deena demanded the cockpit voice recording from the day of the crash; she needed to know what went wrong.
In the years since the Sept. 11 attacks that claimed the lives of 2,996 people, Deena has seen her daughters grow up and embrace their late father's heroism.
"As far as being affected by the death of their dad and how he died and his heroism, they've grown up with it. It is a part of who they have become," Deena shared. "They understand the legacy we have as a family to make a difference. They understand the heroism of their dad, and they are very proud of them."
Deena knows that Tom would be proud of all three of them.
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This year Deena and her three daughters will be in Pennsylvania for the first time to honor their father and visit the site where Flight 93 crashed.
With it being 20 years since the events of Sept. 11, Deena is nothing but grateful for the support she has received and continues to receive from friends, family, and strangers.
"I am so grateful to all of you who still remember and memorialize my husband, the passengers on Flight 93, and all of those who were lost on 9/11," she said. "It means more than you know to hear your stories, read your sweet messages, and to know that you still pray for us and think of us.
"Your prayers have helped us tremendously."