Boston Globe reporter David Filipov lost his father, Alexander Filipov, when the first plane struck the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001. On the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Filipov remembered his immigrant dad as “the American Dream personified” in a series of heartbreaking tweets.
He was like that — Al inherited the gift of the gab from his dad, and passed it on to his kids. He was on a business trip to Los Angeles.
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
Al had kissed his wife, Loretta, and told her he'd be back in 3 days for their 44th anniversary. Read her story here http://t.co/zMPEaSUNB4
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
At about 9:30, I turned on CNN, saw the buildings, looked at my email, and got
a note from my mom: "Your dad was on the first plane."— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
I was @BostonGlobe Moscow Bureau chief, and I was doing a reporting on the anniversary of a Russian submarine sinking http://t.co/sv1o2dcskO
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
Obviously, that story was put on the shelf. Instead, I got to write the worst obituary ever written about a great man http://t.co/zMEohW4dGm
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
And then every year since then I watch the world mark this private tragedy for what it is: The defining moment of a generation of US history
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
So many people since then have lost loved ones in violent ways that it sometimes embarrasses me how much attention Sept, 11 victims get.
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
At the same time, every time I turn the TV on this time of year, I have to see video of Al Filipov's flight careening into the first tower
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
It took me eight years to talk about it (http://t.co/8JlnEzE0o6) and sometimes I still can't deal with it http://t.co/QPtsDX0J7q
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
It's hard to be a @BostonGlobe reporter, concerned with #Syria, #Boston bombings, #Tsarnaev brothers and not connect it all to dad's death
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
No less so than it is for any of us to listen to President Obama talking about #Syria and not think of 12 years of post-9/11 war
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
By the way, Al Filipov was a naturalized American, born in Canada. Leave it to Canadians to do a better obituary http://t.co/5No8Lessyc
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
Al embraced his new country. An immigrant's son, an immigrant himself, he built a life through hard, honest work, made a home and a family
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
You could say Al was the American Dream personified. Enough people felt this way to create an event in his honor http://t.co/JE8JPhpaty
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
I often wonder how dad would have come down on the question of whether and how to react to the Syria crisis. Neither pacifist nor warmonger
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
Like most Americans.
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
His son, who'll stop soon and let you mark 9/11 in peace, found Afghanistan more complicated in 2001 than good v evil http://t.co/dj7X2E3S4f
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
And despite the best efforts of US forces, Afghanistan was not much better off 10 years after 9/11 http://t.co/UnD8YeQrPr
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
The Taliban had returned to places it was forced from in 2001, in part because the US had been distracted from its intervention by Iraq
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
A now on everyone's mind as we debate, on the anniversary of 9/11, what it means and does not mean for the US to get involved in a civil war
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
So I'll let you get back to that and go remember Al Filipov somewhere else. Good luck, courage to people out there who have lost loved ones.
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
12 years later, I can say that when I think about my father, despite all that has gone wrong since he died, mostly I remember good things.
— David Filipov (@davidfilipov) September 11, 2013
(Via The Daily Beast.)
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