Patricia Quigley and Susan Retik 9/11 Widows Live Beyond the 11th

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9/11 Widows Overcome Loss and Grief and are Living Beyond the 11th

Turning a tragedy into a tribute is one of the ways for survivors to keep going and and keep living after the traumatic loss of a loved one.

Introducing my superheroes...Patricia Quigley and Susan Retik, two 9/11 widows on a heroic mission to overcome grief and loss by connecting with Afghanistan widows.

These two women have found a way to turn tragedy into a triumph, a living legacy of reaching out to help others as they overcome they own grief.

'You can't always choose the roles you play in life, but you can choose the way in which you play them.'

"We didn't choose to be 9/11 widows, but with that title comes a voice."

Susan Retik

Afghanistan Woman and Child

Fate of Afghanistan Widows

International relief organizations estimate that in Kabul alone, there are 30,000 - 50,000 widows, struggling to support an average of five children on less than $16 per month.

Beyond Belief in the Amazon Spotlight 

Beyond Belief

Amazon Price: $24.49 (as of 07/09/2009)Buy Now

After two "soccer moms," Susan Retik and Patti Quigley, lose their husbands in the events of 9/11, grief compels them to focus on Afghanistan, the country where the terrorists who took their husbands' lives were trained. Over the course of two years these extraordinary women dedicate themselves to empowering Afghan widows.

You can pre-order now. This title will be released on September 2, 2008.

About Beyond Belief 

Susan Retik and Patti Quigley are two ordinary soccer moms living in the suburbs of Boston. Then tragedy strikes. As they cope with loss and struggle to raise their families as single mothers, they dedicate themselves to empowering Afghan widows whose lives have been ravaged by decades of war, poverty and oppression - factors they consider to be the root causes of terrorism.

As Susan and Patti make the courageous journey from their comfortable neighborhood to desperate Afghan villages, they discover a powerful bond with each other, and an unlikely kinship with widows halfway around the world.

Theirs is a journey of personal strength and international reconciliation, and a testament to the vision that peace can be forged, one woman at a time.

Statistics on Beyond Belief 

A Beth Murphy Film

    Featuring: Susan Retik, Patti Quigley

    Director: Beth Murphy

    Genres: Documentary, Politics/Religion and War

    Total Running Time: 98 min

    Production Year: 2006

    DVD Release Date: June 15, 2008

    MPAA Rating: Not Rated

    Available from: Alive Mind

Patti Quigley, Beth Murphy, Susan Retik

Director Beth Murphy's Blog on Alive Mind Woman 

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Beyond Belief

More about Beyond Belief 

Susan Retik and Patti Quigley's organization Beyond the 11th will receive a donation of $3 from each DVD purchase of "Beyond Belief".
"Beyond Belief" Trailer
This is the trailer from "Beyond Belief" is brought to you by Alive Mind.
Alive Mind Media
Buy Beyond Belief and other titles on DVD at Alive Mind Media.
Alive Mind Woman
The Making of Beyond Belief is featured in Alive Mind Woman.
Beyond the 11th to Receive $3 Donation for each Beyond Belief DVD Purchase
Alive Mind Woman is donating $3 from each DVD sale of Beyond Belief to Beyond the 11th, the organization featured in the documentary that aids Afghan widows.
Purchase Beyond Belief
You can purchase Beyond Belief from the Alive Mind Woman website.

Blog Posts about Beyond Belief  

Beyond Belief: Another Way to Rethink Afghanistan | Let's Try ...
It's called Beyond Belief. The film does not attempt to make a thorough case against the invasion or ongoing occupation, but it makes a gut-wrenchingly complete case for the horrific failure of the wealthy world to share the meagerest ...
District 9 trailer | Cinema Suicide
District 9 tailer, sweet beyond belief. Jul 9th, 2009 by Bryan White. I keep getting District 9 confused with the upcoming animated flick, 9, so I've been slow to comment on this movie. Based on director Neill Blomkamp's short film, Alive In Joburg, District 9 looks to be a science fiction action movie first and an exploration of race relations, particularly from a South African perspective, second. One look and it seems to have a very heavy Alien Nation vibe to it mixed ...
What Horror Film Have You Seen Which Was So Rubbish You Wish You ...
Boring, beyond belief. And don't say it's all about imagination. If I pay to see horror, I wanna see it, not imagine it. I could do that, sat at home, watching the muppet show. Come to think of it, that would be more scary! ...
Don't Overlook Straight to Video Films | Raised Path
They are either poorly acted, written or directed or simply absurd beyond belief. We usually make a habit of ignoring them. I'm here to tell you to keep an eye out for some decent ones. Things have changed? everyone and their ... Digital Video cameras, when lit correctly, can closely resemble film. The latest cameras have gotten so advanced they shoot 24 frames per second? just like film. Some have improved image quality so much you no longer can tell the difference. ...

Forging Peace Woman by Woman 

Two women demonstrating that

    Peace can be forged,

    one woman at a time.

Afghanistan Widows and Women on Flickr 

Inside Afghanistan: Behind the veil by rosewithoutathorn84

Shoe Distribution for Widows by Gordy and Tabita

IMG_8207 by quikdra

One widow and three forced marriages (what happend to the principle of social equality) by Gunapie

Afghanistan_002_WFP_Nina_Berman by Peter Casier

Afghan portraits by net_efekt

Afghanistan Statistics 

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world:
  1. It ranks 173rd out of 178 countries in development.
  2. The average life expectancy is still 44.5 years, about twenty years younger than most neighboring countries.
  3. Only 25 percent of the population has access to clean drinking water.
  4. The adult literacy rates remain among the lowest in the world at 28.7 percent.

To be a widow in Afghanistan is the worst. You're not worth anything.

Susan Retik

The Fate of Widows in Afghanistan 

"All of those widows and all of those children - who's going to take care of them?" Retik asks. "There's nobody left to help out."

Rick Perera, a spokesman for CARE International who accompanied the women to Kabul, outlines the challenge. "Widows are very much dependent on their in-laws. Particularly the husband's brothers, the male members of the family, have a lot of say. The widows can lose their homes, they can even lose their children."

Yet when widows have an education and a way to earn money, those challenges are less daunting. One woman told the group that she had been repeatedly beaten by her brothers-in-law, and her daughter was beaten, because she sent the daughter to school.

Education is what all the mothers want for their children, especially daughters, Retik says. "If they're not educated, there isn't going to be any change."

Source: Gardner M. Widows helping others. May 31, 2006. CSMonitor.com

Patti Quigley and Afganistan Widow

Beyond the 11th 

Beyond the 11th supports Afghan widows affected by war and terrorism, by funding programs that provide life-sustaining financial and emotional support.

Beyond the 11th exists because of the resilient spirit of Patricia Quigley and Susan Retik, two mothers who were widowed on 9/11.

As Patti and Susan struggled to recover from their loss, they felt a growing kinship with the overwhelming number of widows in Afghanistan. They recognized the incredible generosity they received and the absolute scarcity of help for their counterparts in Afghanistan.

In 2003, Patti and Susan founded Beyond the 11th to help provide financial and emotional support to these widows and their children and to give them hope for a better future.

We are honored that Alive Mind is donating proceeds from the film to Beyond the 11th and grateful to Beth Murphy of Principle Pictures for creating such a beautiful film.

With the purchase of each DVD, we are helping to raise both money and awareness for the plight of widows in Afghanistan.

Susan Retik

Purchase Beyond Belief 

Purchase Beyond Belief | Alive Mind Woman
You can purchase Beyond Belief from the Alive Mind Woman website.
Purchase Beyond Belief | Alive Mind Media
You can also purchase Beyond Belief from the Alive Mind Media website.

Website for Beyond the 11th 

Beyond the 11th - a charitable foundation devoted to supporting widows in war-torn areas
Beyond the 11th supports Afghan widows affected by war and terrorism, by funding programs that provide life-sustaining financial and emotional support.

Grantees of Beyond the 11th 

Grantees of Beyond the 11th are CARE International, Women for Women International, Bpeace and Arzu.
Beyond the 11th Grantee - Arzu
Arzu, meaning hope in Dari, helps provide sustainable income to Afghan widows by sourcing and selling their hand-made carpets.
Beyond the 11th Grantee - Bpeace
Business Council for Peace (Bpeace) offers Afghan female entrepreneurs business consulting, training, mentoring, networking opportunities, access to capital, and international markets for their goods and services.
Beyond the 11th Grantee - CARE
The HAWA poultry-rearing program has been a great success. Widows who participate in the program attend poultry training classes.

CARE's Livestock Development Program enables widows to generate income by raising and managing cows and lambs.
Beyond the 11th Grantee -Women for Women International
Women for Women International gives women survivors of war the tools they need to move from poverty to self-sufficiency.

More about the 9/11 Widows 

9/11 widows make a difference in Afghanistan - Making a Difference
NBC's Dawn Fratangelo introduces you to two 9/11 widows with a mission in Afghanistan, where women share their pain from MSNBC.com.
Widows helping others
After these two lost their husbands on 9/11, they began reaching out to women in war-torn countries from the Christian Science Monitor, csmonitor.com.
9/11 Widows Journey "Beyond Belief"
Press Release about the 9/11 Widows Journey chronicled in Beyond Belief. Produced by Alive Mind the DVD Benefits the "Beyond the 11th" Foundation.
Making a Difference: Susan Retik
Susan Retik talks about losing her husband on September 11 on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

More Afghanistan Widows and Women on Flickr 

Afghanistan_001_WFP_Nina_Berman by Peter Casier

Afghanistan by babasteve

Widow 2 by dariusmonsef

Afghan Widows by dariusmonsef

Afghan Widow by dariusmonsef

000082 by Yan Boechat

Are these women your superheroes too? 

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Yes. They're inspirational.

toddgizzi says:

What Susan and Patti have done is amazing. The love they encompass and emit is truly remarkable. To know there are people on our planet with that much love makes me happy to be alive.

Margo_Arrowsmith says:

I can't say enough about these women. To take their loss and reach out to others. They are the most amazing heroes, my words aren't enough.

Frankster says:

They most definitely are. I am truly moved by these women and how they are overcoming their grief by using their voice and actions for peace and understanding.

AnneReidy says:

More people should have such generous hearts! Thanks for high lighting them!

Comfortdoc says:

Susan and Patti have shown how to take their grief and turn it into something very positive.

No. I have someone else in mind.

 
 
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Turning Tragedy into a Tribute to Survive a Loss 

In tragic situations many survivors find that investing their energies to create change or form advocacy organizations can be a positive way of channeling the intense energy, often anger, experienced in grief.

Turning tragedy into a tribute is one of the ways that people can keep going and not only survive a traumatic experience, but thrive in spite of the loss.

Kirsti A. Dyer MD, MS, FT

Photo Credits 

Afghanistan Woman and Child. Steve Evans. Afghanistan. Creative Commons.

Patti Quigley and Afganistan Widow. Used with Permission.

Patti Quigley, Beth Murphy, Susan Retik. Used with Permission.

9/11 Widows in the News 

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Love You Mean It in the Amazon Spotlight 

Love You, Mean it: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Friendship

Amazon Price: $11.86 (as of 07/09/2009)Buy Now

A book that will console and inspire written by four widows of the 9/11 World Trade Center Tragedy.

Other 9/11 Widow Books Available on Amazon 

Wake-Up Call: The Political Education of a 9/11 Widow

Amazon Price: $16.49 (as of 07/09/2009) Buy Now

The Alchemy of Loss: A Young Widow's Transformation

Amazon Price: $32.99 (as of 07/09/2009) Buy Now

A Widow's Walk: A Memoir of 9/11

Amazon Price: $11.25 (as of 07/09/2009) Buy Now

Beauty Beyond the Ashes: Choosing Hope After Crisis

Amazon Price: (as of 07/09/2009) Buy Now

Let's Roll in the Amazon Spotlight 

Let's Roll!: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage

Amazon Price: $11.24 (as of 07/09/2009)Buy Now

The best-seller that has brought comfort and hope to millions in the wake of 9/11.

Let's Roll!--the moving, behind-the-scenes story of United Flight 93 hero Todd Beamer and his widow, Lisa.

The book is a message of character, courage, and undeniable faith in the face of horrifying tragedy, it encourages anyone who reads it to live real life right now.

Featured Lenses about 9/11 

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Anything More to Add? 

You place for comments, feedback, thoughts and suggestions

If you have any more good articles, photos, videos, blog posts, etc about these superhero women, be sure to leave a message.

Margo_Arrowsmith wrote...

Thank you so much. These women turned their own grief into life for others.

ReplyPosted September 26, 2008

Margo_Arrowsmith wrote...

Wow, thanks so much for doing this. I am featuring it in my Afghan women lens! I am an idea for connecting women from 7 countries to help each other in business. I will keep this forever (it also goes into my squidoo library lens) so I can contact these women when the time comes!

Thank you so much

Margo

ReplyPosted September 22, 2008

A Featured Superhero Group Lens 

P.S. I made this lens for the Squidoo Superheroes Project 

I was invited to participate in the Squidoo Superhero Project, making 5 lenses in 2 weeks about the people who have inspired me, mentored me or changed the way I look at the world.

If you buy anything from this page, you'll automatically be sending a royalty straight to the Squidoo Charity Fund, which pays out to a variety of nonprofits every month.

Be Sure to Visit My Other Superhero Lenses 

by Comfortdoc

Kirsti A. Dyer MD, MS, FT is a respected physician, an expert in life challenges, loss, grief and bereavement, professional health educator, professor...

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