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Pennsylvania caregiver receives as he gives

Sept. 16, 2002 News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{410}

NOTE: For a related report, see UMNS story #411.

A UMNS Feature
By Camille Baier*

When Dave McCall walked into the local hospital to help the victims of
United Airlines Flight 93 last year, he didn't know he'd be making lifelong
friends from the sadness that exploded when the plane crashed into the hills
of Shanksville, Pa.

On Sept. 11, the nation remembered the passengers and crew members who
battled their terrorist hijackers. But the tragedy has taken on a more
personal aspect for McCall, a volunteer caregiver.

"Every time I give, it seems I get twice as many blessings back," he said.
"...  It's better than going to the bank, for it's God's bank."

A longtime member of First United Methodist Church in Somerset, McCall is a
retired high school guidance counselor who provides grief counseling for New
Day Ministries and teaches a course on death and dying at a community
college.

On that first, awful Sept. 11, McCall simply wanted to help. But finding no
survivors at the hospital, he went home. The next day, a call from the Red
Cross followed by a "very brief" training session placed him at Seven
Springs Ski Resort, the Somerset County facility that housed families of the
victims flown in by United Airlines.

"What do you say to these poor people?" he asked himself.  "It was like it
is when you go to a funeral home."

But he was there to help. He provided picture frames for people who needed
them. He brought newspaper accounts of the tragedy. And he just sat and
listened as family members talked out their pain.

Since then, he has become very close to some of the families through
yearlong correspondence as well as gatherings when they return to the area.
Some find it comforting to return from time to time, while others find it
more difficult and purposely stay away, McCall said.  

Notable among his new friendships is the family of Louis Joey Nacke, a
Baltimore businessman who died in the crash. At first, Nacke's parents and
siblings came to Shanksville, everyone having dinner together and some of
them going fishing nearby. But six months after the crash, Nacke's father
died, as did a good friend of the family. "It's been a tough year for all of
them," McCall said. 

Yet, Nacke's young niece Courtney saw things from a warm perspective. Seeing
a Christmas tree adorned with beautiful angels, she kept touching them,
taking them down, playing with them. When her mother finally asked why she
was doing this, she replied, "These are angels, Mom. They look like the
angels that got the plane before Uncle Joey crashed and took the passengers
and crew to heaven."

Each person McCall met had a personal perspective on dealing with the
tragedy.  Jack Grandcolas lost his wife and unborn child on the flight.
Grandcolas and his wife had wanted a child for a long time. "But he was a
man of great faith," said McCall. "He said it was providential that this
happened. He said God picked families strong enough to deal with it."

The tragedy brought some families together, McCall said. Two sets of parents
came to the site on behalf of Nicole Miller, "a 21-year-old woman just
beginning her life." Her mourners included a mother and stepfather, a father
and stepmother, "just like so many of our families today," he said. 

But it also broke apart families that could not deal with the loss of loved
ones, he said, "and that was sad."

Buoyed by the experiences, and comforted by stories of innumerable other
volunteers and caregivers from the area, McCall put words to paper recently
with From Tragedy to Triumph. The book is available online at Amazon.com or
in B Dalton and Waldenbook stores. For details, contact McCall at (814)
445-9520.
# # #
*Baier is a staff writer for InterLink, the newspaper of the United
Methodist Church's Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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