Fort Myers News Press Article, September 11, 2011:
“There are two more planes headed for D.C.,” a reporter screamed as she burst into a CBS control room in Washington D.C. on the morning of 9/11.
The senior producer in Washington for the CBS “Early Show,” Dillon was filled with dread as the attacks she witnessed in New York suddenly were turned toward her family.
Dillon’s husband Dan Wexler, a lobbyist on Capitol Hill, was on his way to work after dropping off their two daughters at preschool. But how did she know for certain where they were and what was safe?
For about 30 minutes, while still coordinating CBS’ Washington-based coverage, Dillon couldn’t reach her husband on his cellphone.
“I was crying to myself and dialing constantly while keeping us on the air,” Dillon said. “It was a terrifying time.”
Dillon’s feeling of helplessness before finally learning that her family was safe and the emotionally taxing coverage in the aftermath of the attacks were the sparks behind major changes in her life and that of her family.
After staying with CBS to help produce the one-year anniversary coverage of 9/11, Dillon left the network after nearly 30 years to be closer to her family.
A year after that, she and her husband, Danny Wexler, began planning their move to Sanibel, where Wexler’s grandmother had lived for decades.
“I was blessed with a healthy family in my 40s, and I needed to do it right,” said Dillon, 56. “I was constantly talking to kids, to mothers, to fathers, to sons, to daughters of people that had died senselessly in this attack. And I thought, it could have been me. It could have been Danny. And where would my girls be?”
Once a slave to her career, Dillon today is something akin to a full-fledged soccer mom.
Every other week, she and Danny handle carpool duties for elder daughter Casey, 14, a ninth-grader at Fort Myers High School. Rachel, 13, is an eighth-grader at the Sanibel School. After school, there’s more driving to Casey’s swim practice.
When she left CBS, Dillon became the nightly dinner cook, finally practicing the “family unit” stories her own profession had been preaching.
For the first time in her life, Dillon owns a dog, an Australian shepherd, who gets regular walks on the beach while Danny fishes and the family hunts shells.
“It was the best thing we could have done,” Dillon said of leaving work and Washington. “They (her daughters) probably wish I was back there now because I’m too involved. ‘Mom, will you please go to work and leave me alone.’ ”
Despite Dillon’s peace of mind at home, not all scars from 9/11 are gone. Long frightened by turbulence as an airplane passenger, Dillon acknowledged thoughts of terrorism cross her mind more often on her trips to Washington, where she and Danny still regularly commute for work.
“I don’t think a plane ever takes off with me in it that I don’t have a fleeting moment of, ‘God, if you’re there, please make sure we get there safely,’” Dillon said. “Every flight. It’s hard to admit, but it’s true.”