Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2008 - (Page 27)

honoring our mothers The wedding ring was found in the rubble 11 months after the Twin Towers collapsed. Rescue workers discovered it when they unearthed the left hand of Sonia Mercedes Morales Puopolo, who was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 when terrorists hijacked the plane and crashed it into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. The ring was returned to her daughter, Sonia Tita Puopolo, who now wears it as a reminder of the woman she calls “my best friend, my life.” It is, she says, “a symbol of hope. She’s with me.” Even in the darkest hours after 9-11, Puopolo says, there was no place in her heart for hatred or revenge. “I never thought like that. I never would,” she says. “That’s not what I learned from my mother.” It was her desire to “replace hate with hope” that led Puopolo to take the extraordinary step of being the first 9-11 family member to go to Saudi Arabia in 2006, where she spoke on “Building a Bridge of Peace” during a session on terrorism at the Jeddah Economic Forum. “For me, there was no other option but to turn a negative into a positive,” she says. Puopolo’s mother was a former ballet dancer and a prominent philanthropist who was eulogized by U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton during the memorial service in Boston following her death. “The last words my mother said to me on Sept. 11 were, ‘Tita … remember one thing about your mother. I am a survivor—and I will always be a survivor,’” Puopolo recalled during her speech in Saudi Arabia. “Her hopes and dreams for peace survive in each and every one of us.” It was the Dalai Lama’s lifelong commitment to love, compassion, peace, and nonviolence that brought Puopolo from her home in Miami, Fla., to Lehigh for the six days of teachings. During his opening teaching session on July 10, the Dalai Lama talked about how important religious harmony and understanding are “since the September 11th event.” Hearing the Nobel Peace Prize winner talk about the need for healing and reconciliation in the wake of 9-11 “was very special,” Puopolo says. Over the course of his teachings and the Sunday afternoon public lecture, the Dalai Lama also spoke of the important role that mothers play in instilling love and compassion in their children. It is a message that Puopolo clearly has taken to heart. “We really have to honor our mothers,” she says. During her speech in Saudi Arabia, Puopolo talked about what she learned from her mother. “She taught us that we needed to leave the world better than we found it,” Puopolo said. “She did that every day of her life. She continues—through me—to work toward making the world a better place, in what I remember as her ‘dance of life.’ Her dance of life continues with me today.” —Jack Croft PHOTO By THEO ANDERSON Fall 2008 27

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Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2008 Contents From the President's Desk Mailbox On Campus Research Arts & Culture Sports Cover Story: The Dalai Lama at Lehigh Heart of a Champion Around the World in 80 Years Fighting for Children wth Autism Keepers of the Flame From the Publisher's Desk Alumni News The Last Word

Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2008

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