Artists Registry

“Grace Under Stress”

Singer: Linda Marie Fischer

Lyricists: Linda Marie Fischer and Phil Fischer

Composer: Doug Oberhamer

Grace Under Stress is a patriotic reminiscence of 9/11, a turbulent time in New York City and the country. The tragedy inspires the solemnity of this powerful ballad and pays tribute to those lost, the courage of the people, and the resilience of the city. Our song emanates from a personal place. My co-lyricist Phil Fischer was in 9-11. The day before he was giving a speech on one of the top floors of the Twin Towers. The following day at 8:46 AM, he was on the 9th floor of World Trade Center 4. When the first plane hit, he ran to the elevator without even thinking, violating every rule. He called his colleagues, fixated on the tv and calling furiously. They got out but few survived from the top floors. He was just lucky. So was our composer Doug Oberhamer, a pianist, who performed often at the top of the Twin Towers.

Meanwhile, I was a state away, in New Jersey, sitting at my desk, working, when I got a call to turn on the television. I thought I was seeing things. I reached Phil as he was marching north with thousands of others, refugees in their own land. Two years later, we were married, and I moved into the city near Ground Zero. In the early hours, thousands worked to recover our world. And so together we wanted to preserve the memory of the lives taken and the time through which the city lived. September 11 has deeply infused itself into the sinews of the city's history.

Grace Under Stress serves as a musical memory of a time and a place we would do well not to forget. Our black and white video is meant to be reflective and provide a retrospective. We hope our music adds to the music, poetry, artwork, and other remembrances shared in this registry.

In creating this video, we owe a special thanks to an unattributed photographer who took pictures on September 11 from 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM. Those images were ultimately given to the Library of Congress, which cataloged them and made them available for publication without restriction but for the credit line: Courtesy of the Prints and Photographs Division. Library of Congress. For researchers and others interested in accessing these images, the “Collection of unattributed photographs of the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, New York City” can be found at this link: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002717279/ . Clicking on the digital images leads you to a page with all the images here: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/phpdata/pageturner.php?tImages=250&page=1&t… . Each digital image has a distinct number starting with the letters LC. The A number references the individual slides from which the digital images were made.

We used the following images in the Grace Under Stress video: Smoking tower: LC-DIG-ppmsca-02121-0001 (color copy scan of LC-A05-A01) Smoke and crowd: LC-DIG-ppmsca-02121-0054 (color copy scan of LC-A05-B18) Fireman and flag: LC-DIG-ppmsca-02121-0189 (color copy scan of LC-A05-F14) Firemen and rubble: LC-DIG-ppmsca-02121-0068 (color copy scan of LC-A05-B32) Fireman and firetruck: LC-DIG-ppmsca-02121-0082 (color copy scan of LC-A05-C10) Grace Under Stress. All Rights Reserved. © 2019 Minted Prose LLC