It has been 20 years since Eddie Lamar Stephens lost his older sister Edna. She was among those who died when terrorists crashed a plane into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
In the last two decades, Stephens and his siblings have shared the task of reliving the horrific memories of Edna's death, but they do it for a community that has vowed to never forget her or the other 2,996 people who died during the terror attacks on 9/11.
"I know it's going to come every year, but you know, when it starts getting closer, it makes you start thinking again," Stephens said, and some of those thoughts are heart-wrenching. "The way she died - you think of that. When it [the plane] hit, that fuel just exploded."
Stephens said his sister was actually in Gainesville the weekend before she died. She and their brother had come home for the Stephens family reunion at the old Butler High Schol building.
"Edna had just left from Gainesville that Sunday morning," Stephens said. "My daddy wanted them to stay a little longer, but she said she had to go to work."
Stephens said his sister was dedicated to her career in the nation's capitol. Not only had she worked for three decades for the Army and the Department of Defense prior to becoming a budget analyst for the Resource Management Office at the Pentagon, but she began her professional life in D.C. with the FBI.
"We were really, really proud of that," Stephens said.
Stephens, now 69, is four years younger than Edna, and he remembers his big sister could sometimes get into his business a little too much, especially when it came to girls he might want to date.
"She would always say, 'you don't need to talk to that girl, you don't know what kind of girl she is,'" Stephens said with a laugh.
Still, they were close, and he remembers that more than anything.
He said the Stephens family has always been a family of faith, but Edna's death has taken a toll on them, especially their father, Rev. Eddie Stephens, who died in 2009. So, on this 20th anniversary of 9/11, Stephens said he and his siblings - there were nine of them in all - will remember their sister quietly and privately.
"We'll go down and clean the grave up and put flowers on the grave like we always do," Stephens said. And they'll remember the 53 years they had with their sister.
"She had a beautiful personality. She was a beautiful person."
Follow this link to read Edna Stephens' biography on the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial website.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2021/9/1036550/edna-stephens