Joseph Dittmar: I got to Penn Station. And it’s 80 minutes from New York to Philly. The train was packed with people sitting and standing. And not a word was spoken; there weren’t any words to say.

When the train got down to 30th Street Station, I got out, searched for my rental car, and it’s 14 hours to drive from Philadelphia to Illinois. I got home in 11.5 hours. I just wanted to get home.

I called the office to let them know I wasn’t gonna be in and it was a good thing because they thought I was dead.

I was about 10-15 minutes away and I called my wife for what was probably like the 50th time and I said to her, ’Hey, I’m almost there.’ She said, ’They decided to have a mass at Our Lady of Mercy–.’ And I stopped her right in the middle of her sentence. I said, ’I’ll be there. I’ll meet you there.’

And I tried to pull into the church parking lot. You would’ve thought it was Christmas – I mean, it was just packed. And I opened up the back door of that church to see these hundreds of eyes all staring back at me, knowing where I had been. I looked over to the right to the pew where we always sit and I see my kids, some of my friends. And my wife jumps over the back of the pew, runs to the back of the church, gives me the greatest hug and a kiss a man could ever want. She’s not that kind of a demonstrative person, but that’s what made that moment even more incredible. And I knew at that moment that I was home. Never had a better feeling in my life.