Sacred Heart of Mary Alumna Remembered on 9/11

Students, faculty, and staff opened the solemn anniversary of the tragedies of 9/11 with a prayer today. While they prayed for the more than 3,000 people who lost their lives that day, they especially lifted up in prayer Mary Lenz Wieman, a 1976 alumna of Sacred Heart of Mary High School.

As far as school officials know she is the only alumnus from the St. Viator/Sacred Heart of Mary Alumni Association who died that day.

Wieman was a successful marketing executive with AON Corporation. According to a story published in the New York Times Portraits of Grief, she was preparing to run a meeting on the 105th floor of the South Tower at the World Trade Center. 

When word came to evacuate, she and her coworkers walked down to the 78th floor, where they inexplicably chose to take the elevator the rest of the way. That was the last time anyone saw her.

While current students remembered her in prayer, Wieman’s classmates from the Class of 1976 continue to keep her memory alive, particularly with her parents, Lionel and Marianne Lenz, who live in Barrington. 

On Monday, seven of Wieman’s classmates visited with her parents. They included: Mary Pat Sweeney Barmantje, Mary Jeanne Cole Fitzgerald, Pat Lamich Fullriede, Tess Prasnikar Horwath, Jan Gallagher Schwellenbach, Julie O’Grady, and Kathy Biancardi Cacciato.

All but Schwellenbach had attended Our Lady of the Wayside School with Wieman and many of them attended the University of Dayton with her as well. Consequently, their memories run deep.

“We all share so much common history that we could talk for hours,” O’Grady said.

This was the second time this year that the group visited with Wieman’s parents, but this time they deliberately timed it in advance of 9/11, to provide support before the anniversary.

 “It was wonderful, wonderful,” Marianne Lenz said. "They had so many memories of Mary, some I didn’t even know, that we laughed and laughed.”

Central to their storytelling was a scrapbook that the 1976 alumnae had created six months after 9/11. Together, they submitted favorite photos and clippings of their many happy times with Wieman. Marianne Lenz brought it out for their visit and it sparked even more memories.

“I love that scrapbook and all of the pictures of the girls,” she said. “I think it’s just wonderful that all her friends remember Mary so much.”

Lenz described to the group how close she is to Wieman’s three children, who now are all adults. She even showed them photos of her new great-grandson, Blaise, who would have been Wieman’s first grandchild.

Wieman's name is etched in the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York City, along with the nearly 3,000 others who lost their lives that day. But it is the memories shared by her closest friends, particularly of those years at Sacred Heart, that brought comfort to her parents this week.

“When we met, we didn’t dwell on 9/11, but instead share happy and upbeat stories,” O’Grady added. “Hopefully, the happiness from our visit will ease their spirits on the anniversary."

“By sharing stories of Mary and our years together,” she added, “I think we all feel like Mary is there with us, enjoying all the memories.”