'9.11 We remember' series: Dana Hannon of Wyckoff
Thursday, September 8, 2011 Last updated: Thursday September 8, 2011, 1:44 AM
Wyckoff Suburban News
Wyckoff – For Kyle Bickford, Ground Zero represents a void in her heart.
"You know when you talk with a friend, and they start telling a funny story, and they remember a part that you don’t remember, and then you just kind of play off of each other?" she asked. "The person who could do that for my entire life and my entire childhood is no longer here."
That friend was her brother Dana Hannon, a 29-year-old New York City firefighter who boarded Engine 26 to aid rescue efforts at the World Trade Center on 9/11.
Kyle had been at her job in Upper Saddle River when news of the terrorist attacks reached her.
"At first I wasn’t even sure if he was working that day, because firemen’s schedules are all…you never know," Kyle said, but a call from his fiancée, Allison Dansen, confirmed her worst fears.
Kyle joined co-workers in an office with radio reception and listened to news reports saying the South Tower had fallen.
"There was a girl there, and she didn’t know about Dana, and the first thing that she said was, ‘All of the firemen are dead’," Kyle remembers. "I turned, I walked to my office and I picked up my purse and I just walked out. I left and I didn’t go back for two weeks.
"I just drove home and I remember thinking…something bad is not supposed to happen on this day where you can hear the birds chirping and it’s like a Disney movie. That’s not what’s supposed to be happening."
Ten years later, she continues to mourn. As she talked about how her life has changed since 9/11, she relates events with a "tinge of sadness" because of Dana’s absence.
Dana never had a chance to meet her husband, Kevin, or get to know their 3-year-old son, Cole Dana. She laments that he couldn’t marry and have children of his own.
He was almost there — only two months before 9/11, Dana had proposed to Dansen on top of a bridge in Australia. Kyle said the wedding would have likely been in the fall of 2002.
"When you stop and think about in 10 years what can happen – I’m 10 years older. I’m married now. I have a child. My husband never got to meet my brother," Kyle said. "So much in my life has changed and it also illustrates how much Dana’s will never.
"For everyone it’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s 10 years — how could it be 10 years?’ And for me it was just as bad when it was nine years and it will be just as bad when its 11 years," she said.
But 10 years is a milestone, Kyle concedes, and so she is marking the anniversary by selling re-designed commemorative T-shirts that will benefit the Dana Hannon Scholarship Fund, which she founded shortly after his death.
Through the fund, two high school seniors from Wyckoff are given scholarships each year for their volunteerism and community service.
To date, over 700 shirts have been sold in 21 states and London.
"For me what’s important is someone who’s never met Dana could be standing behind this person [wearing a shirt] in the grocery store and just for a minute they have to think about him," Kyle said. "For some people it spurs them to go find out more and for other people. they just think about him for a minute and that’s what I’m looking for."
When asked how she feels about living in the town where Dana is considered a local hero –his legacy as a firefighter is immortalized in stone in front of Fire Co. 1 at the Fallen Firefighter Memorial – Kyle says she’s appreciative, but to her and her parents – Tom and Gaye Hannon – he’s still just Dana.
"I don’t look at him that way," Kyle said. "He was a fiancée, he was a brother, a son, a grandson, and that’s the most important part to me."
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Hannon
That friend was her brother Dana Hannon, a 29-year-old New York City firefighter who boarded Engine 26 to aid rescue efforts at the World Trade Center on 9/11.
Kyle had been at her job in Upper Saddle River when news of the terrorist attacks reached her.
"At first I wasn’t even sure if he was working that day, because firemen’s schedules are all…you never know," Kyle said, but a call from his fiancée, Allison Dansen, confirmed her worst fears.
Kyle joined co-workers in an office with radio reception and listened to news reports saying the South Tower had fallen.
"There was a girl there, and she didn’t know about Dana, and the first thing that she said was, ‘All of the firemen are dead’," Kyle remembers. "I turned, I walked to my office and I picked up my purse and I just walked out. I left and I didn’t go back for two weeks.
"I just drove home and I remember thinking…something bad is not supposed to happen on this day where you can hear the birds chirping and it’s like a Disney movie. That’s not what’s supposed to be happening."
Ten years later, she continues to mourn. As she talked about how her life has changed since 9/11, she relates events with a "tinge of sadness" because of Dana’s absence.
Dana never had a chance to meet her husband, Kevin, or get to know their 3-year-old son, Cole Dana. She laments that he couldn’t marry and have children of his own.
He was almost there — only two months before 9/11, Dana had proposed to Dansen on top of a bridge in Australia. Kyle said the wedding would have likely been in the fall of 2002.
"When you stop and think about in 10 years what can happen – I’m 10 years older. I’m married now. I have a child. My husband never got to meet my brother," Kyle said. "So much in my life has changed and it also illustrates how much Dana’s will never.
"For everyone it’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s 10 years — how could it be 10 years?’ And for me it was just as bad when it was nine years and it will be just as bad when its 11 years," she said.
But 10 years is a milestone, Kyle concedes, and so she is marking the anniversary by selling re-designed commemorative T-shirts that will benefit the Dana Hannon Scholarship Fund, which she founded shortly after his death.
Through the fund, two high school seniors from Wyckoff are given scholarships each year for their volunteerism and community service.
To date, over 700 shirts have been sold in 21 states and London.
"For me what’s important is someone who’s never met Dana could be standing behind this person [wearing a shirt] in the grocery store and just for a minute they have to think about him," Kyle said. "For some people it spurs them to go find out more and for other people. they just think about him for a minute and that’s what I’m looking for."
When asked how she feels about living in the town where Dana is considered a local hero –his legacy as a firefighter is immortalized in stone in front of Fire Co. 1 at the Fallen Firefighter Memorial – Kyle says she’s appreciative, but to her and her parents – Tom and Gaye Hannon – he’s still just Dana.
"I don’t look at him that way," Kyle said. "He was a fiancée, he was a brother, a son, a grandson, and that’s the most important part to me."
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