Everyone has their own “where were you story”.† This is mine.
I lived in California at the time.† My phone rang and I was still asleep.† It was my Mother, from Alabama.† She said, “Turn the TV on”.† I grumbled and mumbled about her waking me up so early.
I stumbled into the den and turned on the TV.† I saw the North Tower on fire.† I asked my Mother, “what happened”.† She said a plane had flown into the tower.† As she and I were on the phone talking, we watched together, from opposite ends of the country, the 2nd plane crash.† I don’t really remember exactly what happened next.† I do remember calling a couple of people in Cali.† I knew most of them, like me, would be asleep.
Ever since Kei was old enough to understand we have talked about it.† I have shown her videos and songs and movies.† She told me today, “Mom I think I would have run away if I was a firefighter.† I don’t know if I could have gone into that building.”† I told her of course she would have.† We are strong when we have to be.† It is how most of of are made.
No matter what I show her,† there is no way to convey the ‘feeling’.† I felt like a zombie for several days, everyone did.† It shook us to our very core.† It changed us as a nation.
It was the main reason I moved back home.† I wanted to just be home.† I left California in October.† I remember how different the airports were.† How my best friend couldn’t walk me to the gate, how there were guards with guns everywhere.† I don’t remember being nervous about flying, even though flying isn’t my favorite thing.† I just wanted to be home.
Today as we sat and watched videos on YouTube it is still just as horrifying.† We still gasp as we watch the 2nd plane, as we see people jumping to their death, as we see firefighters covered in ash, I still cry.
So much has changed in my life since that September 11th day.† I am home, my sweet Mother is gone, I have the most wonderful child in the world.† But sometimes I wonder what I and everyone else lost that day….
God bless and be with everyone today who lost someone in 9/11, everyone who was affected by this tragedy, which is pretty much everyone in the world….
A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Words cannot explain how awful that day was. We live about an hour from New York. Both my brother and my mother were in New York. It took them hours and hours to walk miles and miles. Eventually they made it home safe and sound. My Mother never totally recovered. She still works in New York (Brooklyn) but has a fear of being stuck on the subway. I think that day solidified my brother’s desire to join the Corps. My brother in law who works in the building next to where the twin towers stood was home that day having an ultrasound with his wife for their unborn son. Our family was affected by that day but thankfully not to the extent that many around us were. My loved ones made it home safe. I am so thankful.