“TODD WAS AN ordinary guy,” says Lisa Beamer. “He was extraordinary to me and to his family, but to the world he was ordinary. And like any ordinary guy getting on a plane that day in a business suit he was able to do extraordinary things.”
       Lisa Beamer’s husband Todd left Newark airport last Tuesday morning on United Flight 93, bound for San Francisco. He was supposed to have left the day before for his business meeting, but decided to spend an extra night at home with his wife and two young sons.
       Shortly after 10 a.m., the jet crashed in a Pennsylvania field, killing all 44 on board. Lisa was watching television with a friend at the Beamer’s home in New Jersey.
       “I was standing behind my couch, I’ll always remember, when I heard them say that was the United flight from Newark to San Francisco that just went down,” says Lisa. “And I said, that’s his flight. And my friend said, ‘No he might be one a different one, he might not have made it on the plane.’ And I just said no, I know that’s his flight and I just said no.”
       Authorities now believe 32-year-old Todd Beamer and other passengers died trying to overpower the hijackers. In doing so, they may have prevented a much greater catastrophe because the terrorists had turned the plane toward Washington, D.C.
       But it wasn’t until three days later that Lisa found out how the authorities knew that her husband had gone down fighting.
       “My contact at United whom I’d been speaking with multiple times a day all week called Friday night and said, ‘I’d like you to go somewhere quiet,’” says Lisa. “And I said, ‘What could be worse. What news could be worse than what you’ve already given me?’ And I went with my brother up in my bedroom and we got on the phone and he said, ‘I received a correspondence from GTE Airfone that one of their operators spoke to Todd during the hijacking.’ And then he gave me her phone number, which she included. And on Saturday morning I called her at her home.”
       Lisa Beamer called another Lisa — an Airfone operator for GTE named Lisa Jefferson who had already told investigators about her conversation with Todd in the last harrowing moments aboard the hijacked plane.

    And when she picked up the phone and you said you were Lisa Beamer? “I could barely get those words out and it seemed like she was just waiting to talk to me,” says Lisa. “Obviously, I didn’t have to describe who I was. She knew right away.”
       What did she tell her about the conversation? “She told me that when Todd initially called, he called at 9:45 in the morning,” says Lisa. “He gave her his flight information and said, ‘We’re being hijacked.’ He described the hijackers. He said that there are three. He didn’t know their nationality. He knew that two had knives and one had some sort of an apparatus strapped around his waist with a red belt so that, that appeared to be a bomb.”
       Did he say where he was on the plane? “Yes,” says Lisa. “What he said happened is that they had left the first class cabin, 10 people up there. And then they moved 27 people who were in the rear of the plane to be seated all the way at the back. The hijackers had removed the pilots from the cabin and had entered the cabin and closed the door. I think two of them had gone into the cabin and closed the door and he knew that the pilot and co-pilot were injured. He did not know if they were dead or alive.”
       But it quickly became clear to Todd that soon they would all be dead.
       “It seemed like after a while he realized either from information from other passengers or because the plane started flying more erratically, that this was not going to end well,” says Lisa.

Was it clear there was a plan being formulated? “Well, initially, when he said that he knew he wasn’t going to make it, what he did was he told her about our family, and he told her about me,” says Lisa. “And she knew the boys names. And she knew we were expecting a baby in January. And he gave her our phone number and said, ‘I need you to call Lisa. Please promise that you’ll do that for me and let her know how much I love her and the boys.’ And I didn’t need to hear that, but I knew in my heart that would be that sentiment. But it was great to get that message from him three days later.”
       She had promised that she would? “She did,” says Lisa “Yes, she promised, and she followed through. And then after he covered his family, he asked her to pray the Lord’s Prayer with him. And she did that. And then he asked Jesus to help him. You know, in the Lord’s Prayer, it asks us to forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And in some way, he was forgiving those people for what they were doing, the most horrible thing you could ever do to someone. But after he had gone through that process and made sure that we were going to be taken care of as best he could, he told her that he and some of the other passengers — he specifically mentioned Jeremy.”
       Jeremy Glick? “Jeremy Glick had decided that they were going to jump on the hijacker with the bomb,” says Lisa. “And the next thing she heard Todd say was, ‘Are you ready? Let’s roll.’ And as soon as I heard her say, ‘Let’s roll,’ I got a smile on my face. Because I knew that was Todd’s voice. We use that phrase all the time with our boys. It’s kind of hard to corral little boys sometimes. But when we say, ‘Let’s roll boys,’ they head to the door and they start to get ready and, you know, get ready for the next thing we’re going to do. And he said — ‘Let’s roll’ — just like he did so many times at our home. And she said after that, she didn’t hear anything more from Todd. That was 10 a.m. So he was on the phone for 15 minutes.”says Lisa. “She said there was a lot of commotion and there were screams. And she said she stayed on the line and it became silent then. But she stayed on until she heard that the plane had crashed about 10 minutes later.”
       What was it like to hear about that phone call? “You know, it was just a blessing because people had asked me, you know, do you think Todd was involved?” says Lisa. “What do you think Todd did? And everybody who knows Todd said, ‘Oh Todd was there.’ Todd was, you know, he was at the forefront. He was on this team that was going to take down these hijackers. Because Todd was a competitor. He wasn’t an aggressive person, but he certainly was a person who would stand up for himself and stand up for other people. And he would not go down without a fight.”
       It must have been incredibly emotional call for the operator. How does Lisa Beamer think she’s dealing with it?

  “She said that she held it together during the phone call for him, and she said she lost it when she got off,” says Lisa. “And I told her what a rock she must have been for Todd and what a comfort she must have been for Todd in those last minutes. And she said in those minutes I talked to Todd, I felt like I made a friend for life. And I said, you know, I’m sure that he felt the same way.”
       What did Todd’s father, David Beamer think when he heard about the phone call? “Our son, I think he handled the situation admirably,” says David.
       David Beamer was on business in California when he got the news about his son. He drove across the country to be with his family.
       “I knew in my heart of hearts that Todd would have acted the way that he did,” says David. “And he, the confirmation for the rest of the world, to know... understand what these men, the many heroes on this flight did give us — great, you know, piece of comfort. And I think it sets an example for what I fear many other Americans are going to be called upon to do.”
       At a memorial service for Todd Beamer on Sunday, healing words and fond memories for the man who loved to say, “Let’s roll!”
        “But we know he loves us, and he still loves us,” says Lisa. “And I just have so many people who are going to be able to share their memories of Todd with them through the years. So I think they’re going to get to know their dad. And they’re going to want to be like him one day. And I’m going to make sure of that. Todd made us proud of him, and we’re going to make him proud, too.”