FLORIDA TIME UNION, JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 18, 2001

Jacksonville economist John Godfrey watched the stock market open yesterday, and was thankful for what he saw.

Correction. He was thankful that he was there to see it.

"We were survivors," a still shaken Godfrey said yesterday morning just after the stock market began its day-long decline. A week ago today, Godfrey and his wife, Flavel, were in the New York Marriott World Trade Center when a hijacked plane slammed into the center's first tower just before 9 a.m. Godfrey was at the National Association for Business Economists meeting in the ground-floor ballroom and Flavel was in the Godfreys' 16th-floor hotel room.

Godfrey heard "a thud and a kaboom" and his group was told to leave as hotel guests also were evacuated. Godfrey left and headed west and then north; Flavel headed south; and the horror of the unknown set in. The second hijacked plane struck and both towers collapsed as the Godfreys separately sought safety. Godfrey prefers not to detail the indescribable destruction. He witnessed it and "let's just leave it at that," he said.

While the Godfreys were reunited by 2 p.m., the hours in between were unnerving.

Godfrey had stopped at a cab depot, where he borrowed a calling card to leave a message on their home telephone answering system in case his wife checked those messages. Then Godfrey made his way to General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, where Jacksonville friend Kurt Dunkle had just enrolled. Dunkle, his wife Cathleen, and their two young daughters only recently moved to New York.

Godfrey called home again and also called his adult son in Atlanta. John Godfrey Jr. was "ecstatic" to hear that his father was safe and made sure the messages at the Godfreys' home were clear about John's whereabouts. During the estimated 3-mile trek to the seminary, Godfrey prayed. "I had been repeating as much of the 23rd Psalm as I could," he said. Repeating the first several lines of "The Lord is my shepherd," he arrived about 11:30 a.m., attended a service and waited.

Flavel Godfrey had called home with a calling card and discovered John's location. "I had to believe that she clearly got out and she clearly believed that I had gotten out, even though we were just adjacent to both of the buildings," Godfrey said.

About 2 p.m., Flavel arrived. "It was a long time," Godfrey said. "Thank goodness we got around some very good people up there, and then it just got surreal," he said. The Dunkles had driven to New York and offered their car to the Godfreys, who left Thursday and arrived in Jacksonville late Friday to resume their lives. They attended services as usual at St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Sunday, picked up storm-strewn branches in their yard and spent the weekend with "people that we are very comfortable with."

Godfrey made his five-mile run yesterday, worked in the office and spoke briefly but emotionally to the Meninak Club, "I will try to do some normal things," Godfrey said yesterday morning as the market reacted wildly, riveting attention to the economy. "Whether we are in a recession or not is irrelevant. It won't be largely different from where we already were," Godfrey said with a measure of calmness. Are we in a recession? "I think probably now we are."

John Godfrey Jacksonville, FL