On my way to work today, I looked to my right to an office parking lot near Price and Broadway roads in Tempe. I remembered back to the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. While the second of Twin Towers in New York City was being speared by an airliner, I was helping a church friend remove the flat tire from his car in that lot, and I took him to a repair shop to get it fixed. It seemed, at the time, a bit of a inconveniece to help him, given this newsman’s need to get to work that fateful day.He and his son had walked through the darkness to our house about midnight after the flat, and I then drove them to their Tempe home with a promise to help Mark get it fixed the next day. Next morning as all the awful things were happening, I was obligated to get Mark back on the road and to work. And to then get myself to the Tribune where everybody was thrown into the biggest story so far in the 21st century for America. Today, I was visited by Linda Allen, the Angel Lady from Tempe. Last November, we published a feature I wrote about her adventure with angels and her work publishing childrens activity books, including one called Your Dream Angel.Allen, who also writes under a pen name, Lela Gabrielle, remembers the national convulsions of Sept. 11. She woke up on Sept. 12 and wrote a poem that flowed from her soul. It was a mixture of love, joy and hope, she said. Allen said she wanted all people to begin forgiving one another to hasten a healing. She yearns for that important effort to continue.She once sent the poem to Oprah Winfrey, and she has it affixed to her refrigerator door. I read it a lot, she said. Allen says the words hold up well six years later. Here is her poem: May The Healing BeginMay each and every soul in the universe be blessed with tranquilityMay we experience the beauty and perfection of our onenessMay our brilliant lights guide us into a peaceful paradiseMay we remember our childlike innocence and embrace itMay we always know we are never aloneMay we be in constant gratitude of all that we are and all that we haveMay we sincerely forgive ourselves and everyoneMay love overflow with LOVE into the love of others. — Lela Gabrielle 9/11 Prayer

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