A woman who lost her husband during the Sept. 11 attacks will be speaking at the Bath First Church of the Nazarene on Sunday at 10:45 a.m.

Ann Van Hine’s husband was a firefighter in New York City when he was killed in the line of duty during the attacks.

“He was doing a job that he loved,” she said Thursday. “I say to people, ‘I’ve never asked why did he die on Sept. 11?’ I know why; it’s because he was a New York City firefighter and he was here doing his job.”

Since then, Van Hine has been volunteering at the 9/11 Tribute Center in New York for 10 years, and giving walking tours every other week. She also visits schools to share her story with students young and old, many of whom have no memory of the event.

“I’ve always believed that whole thing about telling the next generation, so whether it’s telling them Bible stories or telling them American history and things that happened, I think we have a responsibility to the next generation,” she said.

Van Hine said she’s met visitors who come from all over the world to pay their respects at the center. In a tour she had given recently, visitors had hailed from England, Germany, Poland, Australia and China.

“I say to people that the story of Sept. 11 to me is like a mosaic … they don’t connect like a puzzle, but they lay next to each other and you need all those little pieces of glass to make the picture,” she said. “And I believe you need all the stories of Sept. 11 to really paint a picture of what happened.

“There are so many components to it,” Van Hine added. “And I think when people can hear the stories, it becomes more than just numbers … and it’s the stories that hopefully kids will remember, and adults as well.”

Van Hine also noted that her own story was “very much a faith story,” which she hopes to share more this Sunday.

“My trust in God has not been misplaced, and he’s what’s gotten me through the last 15 years,” she said.

In addition to inspiring listeners through her faith walk, Van Hine also hoped that it would help others realize that “you can go through really bad stuff and still choose to thrive.”

“It’s a choice,” she said. “It’s not the journey I wanted to be on, but it’s the journey that is. And there’s choice in that.”

It’s a reminder that she’s also shared with her two daughters over the years, who were 14 and 17 at the time of the tragedy.

“I always said to my girls that Sept. 11 doesn’t define them,” she said.

When she was asked a couple years ago about “why everything you do is about Sept. 11,” Van Hine said she gave the answer some considerate thought.

“Sept. 11 doesn’t define me, I define it,” she said. “By what I do, I let people know what Sept. 11 means if you’re a person of faith, if you’re a widow of a firefighter, and that’s the difference.”

Bath First Church of the Nazarene is located on 191 Centre St.

dkim@timesrecord.com