The LuHi Pod
A podcast for LuHi students, families, and our community.
The LuHi Pod
Season 7, Ep 6: Special 9/11 Message from Mr and Mrs Ullyatt
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We have two very wonderful - and new to the podcast! - guests with us today: our Dean of Women, Darby Ullyatt, and her husband, Cameron. They retell their recent chapel message about their experience living through the 9/11 tragedy in NYC. It's a wonderful, Christ-centered message that we hope you'll love.
And since Mrs. Ullyatt is a first-time guest, we get to hear the story of how she and Zoeller first met. It's a self-deprecating doozy as usual.
Our intro, outro, and segment music were written and recorded by Mr. Matt Zoeller. You can find us on most of the socials under the Lutheran High School handles.
If you have a question you want answered on the Pod, we do Q&A episodes each season! Submit questions anytime to podcast@lhsparker.org.
You can find chapters for each episode and transcripts here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2228322
Thanks for listening, subscribing, and sharing with your friends!
Therefore, as God chose to be both holy and dearly love. Both your house will compassion. Humility. If again, if I give us grievance against the water. Give us the Lord for game.
SPEAKER_02Colossians 30, 12 to 13.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the little high pod.
SPEAKER_03Here not. Okay. Before we jump into whatever it is. Yes. Tell me. Everybody wants to know.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03Where did you get your wall art?
SPEAKER_02Are these the posters that are important to you? Yes. I would just think thought to myself, what would Rothko hang in his podcast?
SPEAKER_03Live from the dorm room of Hannah Buckles.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, no, these are. I learned this as Mr. Heinem was putting this wonderful podcast studio together. They're not soundproofing, they're sound dampening.
SPEAKER_03Ooh, yeah. Yeah. I was gonna say, you sound a little dampened.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. I am, I am dampened. But that's okay. Yeah. How about you? How's your sound?
SPEAKER_03I don't even know what's another category of dampened, undampened. Yeah. Okay, Hannah.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_03Um you know Pastor Abel, yes. I do. Okay. Have you ever heard Pastor Abel when he's talking, he sometimes includes this story about in his youth he wasn't so sure that the church was for him, faith was for him, or whatever. But his grandfather always, after communion, would like sit in a some specific position. Maybe he kneeled, I don't remember. Yeah. He would sit there and put his head in his hands and he would pray, and it just Scott Abel could tell by the body position, like there's something so earnest happening here. Yes, it's a big deal.
SPEAKER_02What a beautiful liturgy. Uh huh. That's amazing. Thank you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Have you heard that? Have you heard him share that?
SPEAKER_02Probably. Okay. It's a it is an honor and a privilege to know.
SPEAKER_03So, and I could be getting this wrong. Apologies. He's not watching. No, he's not reaching this. Uh he's praying with his head in his hands. But the way he tells it, it's something along the lines of you know, he was going through this. Is this real? Does it matter? Do I care? Yeah. And he came out on the other side of that with some really good prepared material for people in that situation, by the way. Beautiful. Plug for our father Lutheran Church. Yeah, it's amazing. But he says that he never forgot about that thing that his grandpa always did. Yeah. Okay. So his grandpa never even knew that when he was doing that, it was having that effect. You with me?
SPEAKER_02Yes, I am. The legacy. You don't even know the legacy to see what you're doing. You don't even know.
SPEAKER_03You don't even know. Okay, I have another one. Okay. Right? And then I'm gonna ask you if you have one.
SPEAKER_02Oh, great. I do not. Spoiler.
SPEAKER_03No, I have to be careful how I tell this. Because uh, you know, it's not like a false modesty thing, but the one the one version of of a person I would say giving me credit for their conversion to Christianity. It felt like it felt like uh well, I just I was present and watched it happen. You know, I wasn't like in the fight or anything. I didn't even know we were talking. I was just hanging out.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_03Well, so this one guy goes, uh he had been in the church and left. He's like, I'm done with that. Ben there, done that. And he goes, he goes, You said something once that stuck with me forever. And of course, I'm like, Well, well. Don't I always do that? What was it? Was it on the witch podcast episode where you're listening to? And then and then the quote was just very pedestrian. It was like, he goes, Well, I've said been there, done that, and you said, Well, you're still young.
SPEAKER_02Oh.
SPEAKER_03And I was like, That's amazing. Yeah, kind of. Yeah. But I was like, I probably said more profound stuff than that. That's all.
SPEAKER_02Yes, but it was catchy and memorable.
SPEAKER_03But the point is, yeah. Oh, I didn't know. That's so true. Okay, do you have one? Do you have one of those?
SPEAKER_02Um, no.
SPEAKER_03Remember when you used to put me on the spot all last spring?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I do. I do. No, no. That's okay.
SPEAKER_03Oh no, oh, okay. No example comes to mind. Sorry to put you on the spot. Okay, fair. I think I I think I uh set this up to be more profound than uh than the way I was gonna end it, though.
SPEAKER_02Okay, excellent.
SPEAKER_03Because I was really hoping you were gonna say, well, yeah, there was that one time you happened to see a bumper sticker that said iHeartLatin mass, and now we talk about bumper stickers all the time and have a group chat about bumper stickers.
SPEAKER_02Please, can I insert that answer here? Yeah, I I do think about bumper stickers a lot because I never see them as much as you guys see them. Like, yes, we have a group chat about bumper stickers, and I never have any to send because I only ever see um license plates, personalized license plates, and I see them all the time. But I'm like, that's not this group chat, it's not about license plates.
SPEAKER_03Stick sense.
SPEAKER_02I see license plates. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03She sees license plates and dead people. But other no bumper stickers.
SPEAKER_02And that's my bumper sticker.
SPEAKER_03Okay. This I'm gonna segue this right on in to what we're what we who's on today. Who's on first? Years ago, years ago, like 2014, maybe when I was in charge of yearbook. Um all the uh local photographers used to hit me up and say, Hey, how can we make some kind of a relationship so I can get on your list? And you know, and uh that's a common thing to do. And I was always like, I don't have a list, but you are their nightmare.
SPEAKER_02Like, dang it, another one of those people.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no list. I don't want your money. Um, one of those photographers, I don't remember how it worked out, but maybe it was early on. We did end up talking to each other over email. Okay. And at that time, having a working phone in your room was a big deal. Dan Gherky said, Yes, it was you must have your phone whatever working, and you have to check your messages and reply to them. One day I was like, fine, I'll make a stupid message, Mr. Girky. So I was just being flippant and irreverent. I said something like, You've reached the phone of Dr. Matthew Zeller, and then whatever. So the the photographer with whom I had been speaking shortly after that calls me and here's my outgoing message. And and instead of saying what she was gonna say, she goes, Oh, oh, I did not know you were a doctor. I'm so sorry. I kept saying, Mister, I'm so embarrassed because that's a big deal. This is who I think it is. It's so umbrella. And it's uh on brand. And it was just a wonderful apology and very heartfelt. And I felt like such a jerk.
SPEAKER_02Yes, as you should have.
SPEAKER_03And uh it was from a local photographer named Darby Juliet.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that was not her intention to make you feel like a jerk, but no, yeah.
SPEAKER_03So then she's like, well, if you'll even still and then in in that, she said something like, I get it because I also got my doctorate.
SPEAKER_02Oh, and then you felt really bad.
SPEAKER_03So at that point of listening to the message, going, Oh my gosh, what have I done? This is the nicest lady. So I you know, I called her back and I'm like, You're on the lists, whatever you want. Yes, you can have it. You are the list. I'm so sorry. Yes, you are the list. Uh and that is how I met Darby Juliet. That's amazing. We never spoke face to face. Her kids were probably in grade school at the time. Yeah. And then years, years later, her kids come through here. They're in high school, and she's like, I don't know if you remember me. We talked on the phone a while back, and I was like, pause, doctor. I remember. I will never forget. I hope you don't remember me. It's just like she does remember.
SPEAKER_02That's that is fantastic.
SPEAKER_03And that little faux pas doctor incident. I don't know if this is in the same category or not, but I just her when she finally shows up, like 10 years later, her and I were like, we have an inside joke. I love that, and we've never even met. Yes, and this is fun, and it's only gotten better from there. Yes. That's the story of how I met Darby Juliet.
SPEAKER_02I I love that, and that's delightful. And this is why we need more first-time guests on, because I've never heard that story before, and I'm so happy to now be part of the inside joke. Um, I'm just gonna go around calling her and you doctor from now on. As you should. Yes, as I should. It's only respectful. Darby is one of my favorite people on staff, and she has been just she's like one of those people who when she says, I'm gonna pray for you, first of all, she doesn't say like that, I'm a pray for you.
SPEAKER_03She goes, Girl, yeah, I'm gonna pray for you. No, that's the outfit she wore, I'm a pray for you.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. She when she says, I will pray for you, she does it. First of all, she'll do it like then and there, but then she continues to do it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And it's uh her faith is beautiful and amazing, and her husband is just a delight. I could because he is on the podcast, also, and we've never had a husband-wife combo on the podcast before.
SPEAKER_03So another first, yeah. Well, shout out to Cameron.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_03He also uh he also, I'm gonna pray for girl, I'm on pray for you. Yeah, I'm on pray for you. He also prays for you right then and there, too. Yeah, that's Cameron rules. So since since getting to know Darby. Uh well, I've also gotten to know Cameron, and there have been a few, you know, once they get to know me, they're like, Oh, I guess we should need to pray for you. Yes. Yeah, um, yeah. Cameron just he'll just stop drop and pray in a public park.
SPEAKER_02Uh let's get that on the bumper. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03S D P. Stop dropping. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. So uh Darby and Cameron are on to share a very special 9-11 message because they they like they lived it. We all lived it, but they like lived it because they he was in the South Tower and uh she was in New Jersey.
SPEAKER_03First time I ever heard Cameron talk about this five-ish years ago. Yeah, I thought that was so good.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_03How can I get this guy to be friends with me?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and you did it. I did, yeah. It took a while, but it did it. Yeah. Uh I cried that at that with that time, that five years ago. I cried when he gave Chapel then, and I cried during this podcast. It's just such an emotional story. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, they do a great job worth hearing, so we should shut up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay, great. Uh, do you have a byline that you can do? Oh, well, just the normal one.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's just the one we always use.
SPEAKER_02Great. This is my co-host, Matt Zeller, who no one would accuse of being famous for being famous. In fact, he's famous for being unfamous. Oh. For now. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Blue High Pod. Thanks so much for listening. I am honored to have these two guests with us today. Um, first timers on the podcast and first husband-wife combo on the podcast, Mrs. Yuliad, who is our Dean of Women. Um, if you don't know her, sitting by the front office, and her wonderful husband, Mr. Yuliot. I'm gonna let them introduce themselves. And then the reason we are doing this podcast is kind of a special 9-11 uh commemorative podcast. They gave Chapel the week of 9-11, so this is coming out after that. But their chapel message was just beautiful and impactful, and we just wanted to share it with um our community, and they have just a really unique story because they were they were part of it. And so this also pairs nicely because if you listen to the podcast last week, um Mr. Lazel was on talking about the performing arts season, and their first show is um called 110 stories, and uh it will open this weekend actually, so you can probably still grab tickets, but that is a documentary-style play um also about 9-11. So just kind of lots of 9-11 content coming your way. Um, it's special because we have our own people in the building who are impacted by this um on a personal level. So I'm gonna stop talking. I'm gonna kick it over to you guys if you'll just do, you know, just a quick introduction.
SPEAKER_00So I'm the Dean of Women here at Lu High, and this is my fourth year here as an employee, but we both of our kids have come through Lu High, and so we it's a treasured place for us and our family.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, your family is amazing. I love both of your kiddos. You guys did a good job.
SPEAKER_01I'm Cameron Yuliot, Darby's husband, and just a quick story on our introduction to Lu High. It was a long time ago, it's like 18 years ago. We had a um a foreign exchange student who came to Lu High and just fell in love with this place, and it was a place that we knew we wanted to send our kids.
SPEAKER_02So yes, I kind of remember I mean I wasn't here for that, but I remember hearing that story that you your plan was public education, but then it didn't work out. So you were just kind of desperately looking for somewhere for her. Yeah, for her. That's so because how old would your kids would have? Jack who Jack was one.
SPEAKER_00Jack was one and Ainsley wasn't born yet.
SPEAKER_02Oh my goodness, that is so that's crazy. Well, thank you so much for being here. Um, I'm just going to let you guys they're just gonna read their chapel message as they as they presented it in chapel um the week of September 11th. So whenever you're ready.
SPEAKER_01So let me start with a question. How many of you have a pretty good idea of what it is that you're gonna be doing after you leave school today? Maybe have a job, or maybe go into practice, maybe have a game, maybe dinner with uh your family, or maybe even a date. Who knows? What if over the next hour something happened that completely changed your life and you had absolutely no control over it? You could do nothing to stop it. What would you do? What would you hold on to? Twenty-five years ago, I was sitting at my desk on the 32nd floor of the South Tower in the World Trade Center Complex. I was a 26-year-old securities analyst working for an investment company, and the day started out completely normally. It was a Tuesday. I had a lot of things to do, and uh my plate was full. I got to work around 8 20, but about 8 45, something strange happened. The electricity flickered, and there was a loud boom outside. I walked out of my office and I found a window and looked up. The way the windows were, you really couldn't see a lot, but what I did see was strange. A lot of paper was flight floating down from up high down into the plaza below. No one knew what had happened.
SPEAKER_00And I was completely unaware of any of that. I was at our home about 17 miles away in New Jersey, getting ready for work. That morning there was a crystal clear blue sky and a cool autumn-like breeze. I'd gone for a run early in the morning. That was my normal routine, but I was emotionally off that day. I was unsettled. I remember feeling anxious, almost like I was in a whirlwind that was getting out of control. I wrote in my prayer journal that morning, Lord, my week, my month seems to be in a tailspin. Father, take control of my day. Already I feel anxious about it. But you said to trust you in everything and to be anxious about nothing. Philippians 4 6. But to trust only in you. I turned on the radio as I headed to work, and as I was driving, I heard a brief announcement. The World Trade Center has been hit by an airplane. That's all they said, no other details. I immediately thought of Cameron.
SPEAKER_01Back in the World Trade Center, all of those boring fire drills that they had for us where they told us if anything strange happened, that our first course of action would be should be to evacuate. They suddenly became real. Within a few minutes, I found a stairwell and started heading down. And the pace was quick at first, but it slowed as we got further and further down towards the ground, and there were more and more people. The mood, though, it was still calm. Everybody was calm. Still, no one knew what had happened. About eight minutes later, though, I reached the lobby. Standing there among hundreds of others, I thought, you know, Darby's going to be worried. So I walked into the mall area that was connected with the World Trade Center, and I found a payphone. I called Darby at her office, but she was still on her way in.
SPEAKER_00I got to Seton Hall University where I worked, and my office mate was holding the phone out to me. My mom was on the phone from Colorado. That's a bad sign. I quickly ended the call with her and immediately tried to call Cameron. Nothing. I couldn't get through. Phones were out all over the New York tri-state area. I could receive calls from out of state, but nothing locally would go through. I remember sitting down in my office, still wearing my backpack and just sobbing. The internet was down. It was hard to get information. I was afraid to leave my office because I wanted to stay by my physical phone since cell phones weren't working. At 9 30, Cameron's parents called me from Colorado. Cameron had been able to get through to his boss at the Denver office, and his boss had reached out to Cameron's parents. They said that they heard he was okay, but events were still unfolding.
SPEAKER_01After I left a voicemail for Derby, I called my boss in Denver. And while I was on the phone with him, the police came through and swept everyone out of that mall. As I crossed from inside to outside, for the first time, the enormity of what was going on hit me. There were fires in the streets. There was debris everywhere. All of the things that are normally in offices, like chairs and phones, and suit jackets and all of that paper. It was now in the street. I looked up and I saw the North Tower burning. And there were people who were trapped above where the impact was, their stairwells blocked, and they were jumping. As I crossed the street, an enormous explosion happened, 75 floors above me.
SPEAKER_00And I was still waiting in New Jersey. I knew that Cameron had been in the building, but I didn't know anything after he'd walked down the stairs. And now the second tower had been hit. So I prayed. I prayed a lot. They were messy, scattered prayers that day. But I'd been journaling prayers for Cameron's protection in a terrorist event for a few years. Cameron had worked with colleagues who'd been in the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center. So we had talked about the possibility that someday New York City could be attacked again. So even before we got married, I started praying for him being in New York City. In 1999, one prayer said, Lord Jesus, protect him in a terrorist attack, shield him, protect him, or just have him be away that day. I had written prayers like that throughout 1998, 99, 2000. And on September 10th, 2001, just the day before the attacks, I wrote another prayer. We'd been in church on Sunday, and on Monday, September 10th, I journaled about Genesis 32, the story where Jacob wrestled with God, and God knew where to touch Jacob to get him to stop struggling with him. And on Monday I prayed, asking the Lord to do something in Cameron's life that would cause him to give up control and surrender completely all parts of himself to him. The next morning was September 11th.
SPEAKER_01When the second plane hit, it was so loud, deafening, disorienting. My instinct was to run. I ran across the street and around the corner, and I found some scaffolding that was uh covering a sidewalk. Within seconds, though, the debris started to rain down around me. Eventually I made my way into a nearby building where hundreds of others had taken shelter, and that's where I learned what had really happened. These weren't accidents. Two fully loaded and fully fueled planes had been hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center on purpose. And then we heard that the Pentagon had been hit as well. After a bit, I walked into a plaza about six blocks from the World Trade Center complex, and there were thousands of us just looking at the smoke pouring out of these two iconic buildings while standing there just before 10. The top power, the top part of the South Tower dropped, and almost in slow motion, the rest of the building crumbled underneath. A cloud of dust jetted into the square where I was standing, and uh the crowd turned and rushed out in a panicked mob.
SPEAKER_00And I was waiting, waiting for the phone to ring, waiting for some news about Cameron. Then someone told me that the South Tower, the building where Cameron worked, had collapsed. And my heart dropped into my stomach. I knew that Cameron had been in the concourse at the bottom of that building. What if he'd gone back upstairs? Or what if he was still in the building? Everything I'd already been assured didn't count now. Everything had changed, and I still hadn't heard from Cameron.
SPEAKER_01Even though I had worked in New York City for about two years, I was surprisingly unfamiliar with the city, but I did know one thing. Broadway went from downtown Manhattan all the way up into Midtown, and Midtown was really the best opportunity I knew of in order to get off of the island across the river and into New Jersey on my way home. After a 90-minute walk or so, I found myself in Midtown Manhattan, and I finally found a working payphone and I called Darby.
SPEAKER_00At about 11 30 that morning, the phone rang, and I heard Cameron's voice. I'm okay. I'm okay. That's what he kept saying. I'm okay. I'm near the Lincoln Tunnel. I don't know how I'm going to get home, but I'll try to let you know when I figure it out. I love you. I love you. Click. A professor down the hall from me, whose husband had been in the 93 bombing, stopped by my office. If Cameron could get to East Rutherford, New Jersey, her husband was there for the day and could bring him home. I had no idea where Cameron was or where he would end up, but thanked her for the offer.
SPEAKER_01Wandering and thinking, I eventually found and followed a group of people who seemed to know where they were going. They led me to a ferry that went across the river into New Jersey, and from there, buses took us to Giant Stadium. And Giant Stadium, you guessed it, it's in East Rutherford, New Jersey. God is good.
SPEAKER_00I made my way home and had been home for a couple of hours. I worked my way through dozens of voicemail messages. It was so eerie. What if Cameron hadn't been okay? There were so many calls. An elderly neighbor tapped at my back door concerned, another mom neighbor at his side just checking in to see if I knew anything. It was about 3:30 in the afternoon. And then I saw Cameron walk up the front steps. He just looked at me with blank eyes. He was pretty quiet when he arrived. Didn't say much. Neither of us really knew what to say. We went inside and Cameron went upstairs to lie down. He was so quiet. And that was scary too. We had survived, but we knew that something had changed forever.
SPEAKER_01So 25 years later, what is it that we want you to know about our story? It isn't the planes, it's not the towers, it's not even the terror. God used those as a tool to force us to think about where we were looking for peace and security. He also used September 11th in our lives to help spur the question: who should we be holding on to? Everyone in this room, everyone on the podcast will eventually face moments that change your life. Maybe not a national tragedy, maybe not something that thousands or millions remember every September 11th. It might be an illness for you or for someone you love. It might be parents getting divorced. It might be losing a parent or a grandparent or a friend.
SPEAKER_00And I can't explain everything that happened that day, and I don't pretend that every tragedy has an easy explanation. Thousands of people prayed that day. Thousands of people loved God, and thousands of people still died. So I'm not here telling you that if you pray hard enough, nothing bad will ever happen to you, because that's not what Scripture promises. But I can tell you that we experience God being present in the middle of something horrible. And the Lord has used that to remind me over and over again that I can trust him. He's brought me through a long battle with post-9-11 anxiety and fear to a place where I continue to ask him to help me want him more than safety and to want him more than answered prayer.
SPEAKER_01Remember that prayer that Darby offered to get my attention? It worked. For me, September 11th, 2001 was a clear turning point. Before September 11th, by faith, I trusted in Christ as my savior, but my walk with him was weak. Why did God save me that day? It wasn't for lukewarm faith. Something needed to change. After September 11th, Christ was not just my savior, but he was my Lord too. He didn't just change my circumstances, he changed me.
SPEAKER_00And as we stand and face a holy God, I know that the evil that was on display on 9-11 is the same evil that actually lives as sin in my own black heart, and I can't do anything about that. I can't do enough good because every day I battle with sin. It's a real thing. And I'm not sure why Jesus Christ has offered me this incredible gift of himself to take over my black heart, to take on my sin, and to cover me with himself so that I appear perfect and righteous before that holy God. But he's the one that said it, and he's the one that did it, and he's the one that I trust, my Savior and my Lord. And that is probably the biggest thing we want you to take away from our story. You don't have to wait for a tragedy to turn to him. He's calling you to himself right now. Choose to hold on to him.
SPEAKER_01Let's pray. Father, as we remember September 11th, we are reminded that life can change in an instant. We are reminded that we are not in control of what tomorrow brings. Father, we know that there will be moments in our lives when everything we count on changes. When those moments come, help us to remember who and what we can hold on to. It's not our circumstances, it's not our plans, it's not our ability to control what happens. Help us to hold on to you. Draw us to yourself today. Teach us to surrender our desire for control and to trust you with our lives. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
SPEAKER_02Wow, thank you guys so much for sharing. That is an emotional story. And just thank you for taking it and bringing truth into it and pointing pointing us all back to Christ. I I'm just so grateful for you guys coming and sharing today. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01May God God be glorified for you.
unknownYeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Thanks.