Born Sept 10, 2001 without the left side of his heart. One day later, Sept 11th, he had to be flown from Moncton to Toronto for emergency surgery. He had about 24 hours to live without the help of medical experts that could deal with that kind of extreme heart condition. But all flights had been grounded after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Against long odds hospital authorities convinced the federal aviation authority to allow the flight. At an early age he was made aware of being the only one flying on the afternoon of 9/11 and he grew to love airplanes. The rest is history (as written in the song). Listen to it in the AUDIO section to the right of my Manitoba Music page.
Good news for 9/11.... 10 years after his famous flight he is taking Captain Paul Short, the pilot that saved his life, up for a flight. Yes 10 year old Taj will be flying the plane. This is yet another fund raiser for the IWK Health Centre in Halifax that helped him. They tried to arrange to have the very King Air Ambulance that flew Taj from Moncton, New Brunswick to Toronto available for today but it's busy flying other emergency rescue missions. Instead he will be flying a 172 Cessna Skyhawk
I called his dad today just in time to hear everyone sing Happy Birthday to Taj. He turned 10 years old yesterday (Sept 10th). I talked to Taj and he again said he really liked the song we created for him. And he is healthy and happy!
Here is a video of a proud Grandpa Reveen (The Impossibilist) talking about his grandson 5 years ago on stage at the IWK Children's Hospital Telethon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q-ATEyqYcw&feature=channel_page
I'm sure there will be videos of todays adventure soon.
Sorry, no links to this year's fundraiser.
Al Simmons
The song was recorded as part of a fundraiser for the IWK Healing Centre in Halifax. Here are all the folks who made it happen...
9-11 Fly Boy
Lyrics: Al Simmons, Music: Daniel Koulack
(c) Nicely Done Music 2008
www.alsimmons.com
Produced by Daniel Koulack & Al Simmons
Recording Engineer - Howard Rissin
Vocals - Al Simmons
Banjo, Fiddle and Bass - Daniel Koulack
Drums & percussion - Daniel Roy
Accordion - Cathy Nosaty
Background vocals - Jan Harding
Inspiration - Taj Reveen