Tena Killinger, a dedicated employee who has been with the PTI airport for nearly 40 years, currently works with HMS Host. Throughout her tenure, Tena has witnessed and adapted to many changes at the airport.. Her deep connection to the airport and its history is evident in the essay she wrote about her experience working on 9/11, which is shared below:
The Kindness of Strangers by Tena Killinger
Their faces I will always remember. Their names I never knew.
I saw an older couple well into their retirement years walking through an almost silent airport. They slowly approached the stunned and stranded travelers one by one.
Looking around, the replay of the Twin Towers crumbling was repeating on every TV.
“Do you have someplace to stay? money for food? We live nearby” the couple kept asking.
They approached a young man, college age, traveling alone with just enough to get him home.
“No, I don’t” he responded.
Then I heard the couple say “Well, why don’t we go and call your parents?” as they headed around the corner to the row of pay phones.
Throughout the day my restaurant slowly emptied, many making it to our local Greensboro hotels. A few others leaning on the kindness of our nearby neighbors who also came to our airport asking “Do you have someplace to stay?”
By the next day our concourse was empty of travelers. They were replaced by uniformed personnel with automatic weapons hanging from their shoulders. That sight, I must admit, sticks with me until this very day.
As the days passed the airplanes were slowly getting back into the skies and me back behind my familiar bar. I heard the sound of voices I had heard before. I turned and saw the older couple hugging and kissing the young man they had left with, just a few days earlier, telling him goodbye.
If you looked closely you could see the old man slipping a few folded bill into the young mans’s hand. “Let us know you got home safe and tell your mom and dad we said hello”
Years have passed since that day, I have been a witness to tremendous changes in our airport. From state of the art technology, beautiful renovations, stunning artwork. Even a name change to PTI.
But, one thing has not changed and I have the joy of seeing it every shift I work. the kindness of strangers.