So close to tragedy; A friend reflects on knowing Anna Allison
Published on September 19th, 2001
STONEHAM, MA - “She’s the reason I moved to Stoneham,” Rebecca Brennan says, remembering her friend, Anna (Williams) Allison, who died aboard American Airlines Flight 11.
Rebecca lives on Poplar Street with her husband and two young children. Her friend Anna lived on Pond Street with her husband Blake.
“We planned her wedding walking around Spot Pond,” Rebecca says. “I can’t turn on the TV. I haven’t read the newspaper.”
But Rebecca knows the newspapers will write about the victims of last Tuesday’s terrorist attack, and she wants the world to know what a beautiful person Anna was.
“She was wonderful... an amazing laugh, happy, optimistic with a love of life... a great friend,” Rebecca says.
Rebecca says Anna loved to travel, cook and work in the flower garden behind her Pond Street home. Her software consulting business, A2 Software Solutions, was thriving. She was a popular speaker at regional and national conferences and wrote articles for computer industry publications. She was on a business trip on Tuesday, Sept. 11.
Now Blake, Rebecca and the rest of Anna’s family and friends must travel on without her.
“I tried to explain what happened to my seven-year-old, and he said, ‘Buy me a BB-gun, Mommy. I’ll protect you,’” Rebecca says, working hard not to cry.
Rebecca found out about her friend on the Web. She saw the name, the age, the Stoneham address, “and that’s when I lost it,” she remembers.
But even with all the grief that comes with a sudden, violent loss of a beloved friend, Rebecca Brennan wanted to send a message of happiness to the community.
She says she is happy to have known such a wonderful person, and she wants people to remember Anna as a woman with a wonderful marriage, a successful business, great friends and a truly full life. Anna loved life, her friend says, which is why her death is so tragic and her memory so bright.
Anna had just launched her new business Web site. The picture seen in this publication and in the media world-wide is a favorite of Rebecca’s.
“She looks so beautiful and happy; she’s standing in her garden,” Rebecca says with joy in her voice.
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