MARYVILLE - Almost four months after their plane settled gently onto the surface of New York's Hudson River, the survivors got their crash-in-a-box.
Vallie Collins and Debbie Ramsey, who were among 155 passengers and crew members who survived U.S. Airways Flight 1549's watery Jan. 15 landing, got to relive the experience as they opened boxes that contained their luggage, its contents and their carry-on belongings. The items were recovered from the jet, which ultimately filled with water, and were cleaned by a restoration company.
The crash caused both Blount County women to take time off from work. One subsequently lost her job.
Both have been in counseling. Both have re-examined their priorities.
They say opening the boxes brought back a range of emotions, from excitement about regaining treasured items to sadness and distress as they again viewed their boarding passes.
Ramsey, a resident of the Seymour area, said she looked on as her husband, Jerry, opened the boxes the night they arrived via FedEx on May 8.
"I probably would not have opened them for a while if Jerry were not here," said Ramsey, 49.
On the other hand, Collins, 38, let the boxes remain sealed in her Maryville home for 11 days, not because of any particular anxiety but because she was at the beach when they arrived and just had other things to deal with.
Inside their boxes were clothes, luggage - the typical possessions of travelers, all cleaned and dried and restored as much as possible to their original condition, including photographs, purses, wallets, Social Security cards, driver's licenses, business cards and much more.
Some items did not come back, including cosmetics and other toiletry items that apparently were considered contaminated by the Hudson's less-than-pristine waters.
But Ramsey and Collins did get a careful inventory of everything, including the nonreturnable "perishables."
Collins said the listing even included the wrapper off an energy bar. She'd eaten the snack before the flight and stuffed the wrapper in her purse.
The list also included five Q-tips. The airline didn't return them.
Ramsey's items included the brush and applicators for her cosmetics, but not the makeup itself.
Both said that neither they nor any other survivors they have been in contact with got their folding cash back. Coins, yes. Some even got British pound notes back. But no dollars in any denomination.
Collins said passenger belongings were retrieved by a recovery company that then sent them to another company that specializes in cleaning, drying and restoring the items.
She said that in one phone conversation with the company, the representative told her that company employees felt really good about this endeavor because they got to return the items to those on the flight. Most often, they return them to grieving family members.
Ramsey was most grateful for the return of a T-shirt and hat she bought at a New York M&Ms store for the grandson she dotes on and whose cell-phone photo she was gazing at as the Airbus was going down. Her most disappointing loss was a pair of glasses.
For Collins, she got back a prized pin that her husband, Steve, had a North Carolina company make for her. He had taken a "drawing" done by their daughter, Addison, when she was a toddler and had it made into a pin, which Collins wore on her coat.
She lost, though, a company-owned BlackBerry on which she had texted her husband, "My flight is crashing."
In the months since the crash, both women have been dealing with a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. Collins said her mental health therapist likened it in intensity to what a soldier experiences in combat, but with a time frame that is very compressed.
Collins went back to work for Tapemark almost immediately after the crash, even getting back on airplanes. But, she said, toward the middle of February, she began to feel "overwhelmed and weepy" and she has been on a leave of absence since mid-March, trying to reorder being a wife, mother of three youngsters and factoring in some "down time."
Ramsey, who was on a buying trip for New York New York, the clothing retailer she worked for, took some time off before returning to work at her Sevierville store for a couple of weeks. But the nightmares, which she still experiences, and other factors led her to take more time off on the advice of her psychiatrist. Two weeks later, she got an e-mail from her boss saying she had been replaced in the job she adored and which had placed her on Flight 1549 in the first place.
All in all, though, the crash experience has helped her rearrange things in her life, and she has returned to regularly practicing her faith, now at Redemption Church International in Knoxville.
She still routinely writes in her journal, which she some day will pass along to her grandson, Jack Ramsey. And, Ramsey says, after her ordeal in the frigid waters of the Hudson, she now has trouble staying warm, even inside her home with summer approaching.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/may/21/052109survivors/
Vallie Collins and Debbie Ramsey, who were among 155 passengers and crew members who survived U.S. Airways Flight 1549's watery Jan. 15 landing, got to relive the experience as they opened boxes that contained their luggage, its contents and their carry-on belongings. The items were recovered from the jet, which ultimately filled with water, and were cleaned by a restoration company.
The crash caused both Blount County women to take time off from work. One subsequently lost her job.
Both have been in counseling. Both have re-examined their priorities.
They say opening the boxes brought back a range of emotions, from excitement about regaining treasured items to sadness and distress as they again viewed their boarding passes.
Ramsey, a resident of the Seymour area, said she looked on as her husband, Jerry, opened the boxes the night they arrived via FedEx on May 8.
"I probably would not have opened them for a while if Jerry were not here," said Ramsey, 49.
On the other hand, Collins, 38, let the boxes remain sealed in her Maryville home for 11 days, not because of any particular anxiety but because she was at the beach when they arrived and just had other things to deal with.
Inside their boxes were clothes, luggage - the typical possessions of travelers, all cleaned and dried and restored as much as possible to their original condition, including photographs, purses, wallets, Social Security cards, driver's licenses, business cards and much more.
Some items did not come back, including cosmetics and other toiletry items that apparently were considered contaminated by the Hudson's less-than-pristine waters.
But Ramsey and Collins did get a careful inventory of everything, including the nonreturnable "perishables."
Collins said the listing even included the wrapper off an energy bar. She'd eaten the snack before the flight and stuffed the wrapper in her purse.
The list also included five Q-tips. The airline didn't return them.
Ramsey's items included the brush and applicators for her cosmetics, but not the makeup itself.
Both said that neither they nor any other survivors they have been in contact with got their folding cash back. Coins, yes. Some even got British pound notes back. But no dollars in any denomination.
Collins said passenger belongings were retrieved by a recovery company that then sent them to another company that specializes in cleaning, drying and restoring the items.
She said that in one phone conversation with the company, the representative told her that company employees felt really good about this endeavor because they got to return the items to those on the flight. Most often, they return them to grieving family members.
Ramsey was most grateful for the return of a T-shirt and hat she bought at a New York M&Ms store for the grandson she dotes on and whose cell-phone photo she was gazing at as the Airbus was going down. Her most disappointing loss was a pair of glasses.
For Collins, she got back a prized pin that her husband, Steve, had a North Carolina company make for her. He had taken a "drawing" done by their daughter, Addison, when she was a toddler and had it made into a pin, which Collins wore on her coat.
She lost, though, a company-owned BlackBerry on which she had texted her husband, "My flight is crashing."
In the months since the crash, both women have been dealing with a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. Collins said her mental health therapist likened it in intensity to what a soldier experiences in combat, but with a time frame that is very compressed.
Collins went back to work for Tapemark almost immediately after the crash, even getting back on airplanes. But, she said, toward the middle of February, she began to feel "overwhelmed and weepy" and she has been on a leave of absence since mid-March, trying to reorder being a wife, mother of three youngsters and factoring in some "down time."
Ramsey, who was on a buying trip for New York New York, the clothing retailer she worked for, took some time off before returning to work at her Sevierville store for a couple of weeks. But the nightmares, which she still experiences, and other factors led her to take more time off on the advice of her psychiatrist. Two weeks later, she got an e-mail from her boss saying she had been replaced in the job she adored and which had placed her on Flight 1549 in the first place.
All in all, though, the crash experience has helped her rearrange things in her life, and she has returned to regularly practicing her faith, now at Redemption Church International in Knoxville.
She still routinely writes in her journal, which she some day will pass along to her grandson, Jack Ramsey. And, Ramsey says, after her ordeal in the frigid waters of the Hudson, she now has trouble staying warm, even inside her home with summer approaching.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/may/21/052109survivors/
After being submurged with all the dead bodies tossed in there & whatnot, I don't think anything could be made clean enough. 
(and some kudos to the New Jerseyans as well)
Thanks for the laugh today! 
And don't watch Law & Order. We locals speak however we like about our city all the time. The city can take it. It doesn't get it's feeling hurt. 
