‘A disaster day’: Yorkville couple reflects on loss of son in 9/11 attack

Jeffrey Collman loved to fly.

“He loved to fly,” his father, Dwayne, said. “He loved to play tennis, aggravate his brother.”

A 1977 graduate of Yorkville High School, Collman was one of eight flight attendants on board American Airlines Flight 11, when it struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

Jeffrey wasn’t supposed to be on that flight, his father and stepmother, Kay, said. He was supposed to be taking a vacation.

“He loved to travel,” Kay said. Collman previously tried to become a flight attendant with United Airlines, but later joined American Airlines.

He was a flight attendant with American for three years before 9/11, Kay said, during which time he was named, “Flight Attendant of the Year.”

It was, “quite an honor,” Kay said, as the award is voted on by fellow flight attendants and pilots with American.

Jeffrey was well-liked as a flight attendant, the Collmans said. He would bring coloring books with him on flights for young passengers, and he would receive cards “from all over the country,” praising how gentle he was in helping them.

“If he had known what was going to happen, he would still have become a flight attendant,” Kay said. “He loved traveling so much.

“He would always call and say, ‘Guess where I am.’ That was his favorite thing to do,” she said.

Collman often wasn’t home for holidays and gatherings, his parents said. He was flying across the world.

Despite his absence, “You still thought about him and talked to him,” Kay said.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s been 20 years in one way, and seems like just yesterday that you get all of those calls.”

“Isn’t it awful?”

The morning of Sept. 11, Dwayne Collman was at a doctor’s appointment, and Kay was getting ready to vacuum.

“I didn’t have the TV on,” she said.

Her daughter-in-law called her, Kay recalled, saying, “Isn’t it awful?”

“I said, ‘What?’ and she said, ‘Turn on the TV,’ so I did and I saw it.”

If something were to happen to another plane in the sky, Collman said, Jeffrey would always call to offer reassurance that he was OK.

“He’d always call and say, ‘I’m OK. I wasn’t on that’,” she said. “There wasn’t any call.”

One of Collman’s friends called, telling Kay that Jeffrey had been seen boarding Flight 11.

When Dwayne came home from his appointment, “I had to tell him that he was on that plane,” Kay said. “That was a very hard thing to do.

“From then on, it was just a disaster day. The vacuum sat in the middle of the floor for a long time.”

After the crash, the Collmans traveled to Boston to meet with administrators from American Airlines, as did the families of flight attendants and passengers.

“We had team members that worked with each person,” Kay said. “It was just a time to organize your thoughts and decide for the funeral arrangements and everything.”

“I got a million calls from people that knew him,” Dwayne said. “People he helped escort off the plane, or helped them. That was nice to know.”

A funeral service for Collman – the largest service ever at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Yorkville – was packed with friends and family, and a friend of the Collmans organized a memorial at a city park on Jeffrey’s birthday.

The tennis courts at Yorkville Middle School are named for Collman, with a plaque next to the gate door, and a sign on the fence. A framed photograph of Jeffrey, a button listing the names of the crew of Flight 11 and a flag that flew over the White House rest in the community room at Anthony Place Senior Apartments where the Collmans live.

In the 20 years since Jeffrey’s passing, Kay said that they try and be with their grandchildren as much as possible.

“We try to be with them a lot, to fill in that space, but there’s always a hole in your heart when you lose a family member,” she said.

“Never take anything for granted,” Kay added. “Jeff enjoyed life to the fullest.”

When Jeffrey was growing up, Dwayne and Kay would tell him to save his money, saying that he would need it when he was older.

“He said, ‘Where’s the guarantee I’ll get old?’”