STORIES BY WILL FIFIELD, T. FOSTER JONES,
hSTEPHAeNIE E. PONDsER, MARK E. STRODER
AND TIM TALEVICH
the as

survive obstacles to inspire us all

Mary White (at right)
BnBFinder.com
New York, New York

MARK MCQUEEN

On September 11, 2001, the world went
dark for Mary White, as it did for
people across the United States.
White was working in her home office,
which faces the World Trade Center (WTC),
when her windows shook as though there had
been a sonic boom. “I automatically did what
I always do when I heard a loud noise: I went
to the window and checked the WTC,” recalls
White, whose business, BnBFinder.com, is a
clearinghouse of in-
formation about bed
and breakfasts. “I lost
my breath when I real-
ized this time it was
not a routine check.”

Using Costco’s
Nova credit-
card-processing
service, she was
able to reestab-
lish online
transactions.”

While talking with her husband on the phone, White saw a blur low in the sky— the second plane. Then came the rumble, smoke and chaos from the collapsing two buildings, forcing White and the other building residents to flee.

IRIDIO PHOTOGRAPHY

In the hours and days after the terrorist attacks, White focused on finding a temporary home for her family. But eventually, she turned her attention to her business. BnBFinder.com was still online, since its host wasn’t in New York. But White decided she could no longer

Top: Mary White’s home-based business was located near the World Trade Center. Below: Sam Asbury, a Navy reservist, left his law office for nearly a year.

Sam Asbury (above)
Asbury Law Offices

Gresham, Oregon

CLARK JAMES MISHLER

Mary and Larry had to tell the three women that the loss of the greenhouses meant the loss of their jobs.

If you’re leaving your business unattended for close to a year, you can pretty much kiss it goodbye.

“They tore up their timecards and said they’d work for free,” says Mary.

building materials and planted flats of seedlings that had been in the garage. That season they produced half the normal crop— including vegetable starts and annual baskets. By fall, Matanuska Gardens had four buildings up.

That was attorney Sam Asbury’s first thought in 2003, when the reservist was given his one-year orders from the Navy that he’d be shipping out to Kuwait.

Following their employees’ lead, the Harrises tackled the cleanup. “We didn’t have time to comprehend what happened,” Mary says. “We just went forward with what we had. We knew people were depending on us.”

“It was our workers who helped us get back on our feet,” Mary says. “I would have liked to have given up and quit and stayed inside and [been] depressed, but their enthusiasm spurred me on.”—Stephanie E. Ponder

“As the sole wage earner, my primary concerns were my family and my business— how I was going to be able to provide for my wife and two boys,” says Asbury.