I’ve been thinking about what to write here today. Blogging about every day events seem so silly in the context of this day. So I thought I’d write about what I remember about 9/11/01, and what I want to remember going forward.
I was on my way to work when my morning radio people announced that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I thought surely it’s a small plane and the pilot made an error. By the time I got to my desk we were only a couple minutes away from the second plane hitting the towers. I told my coworkers what had happened and we all pulled up cnn.com or msnbc.com for coverage. We don’t have tv’s or radios here. Those sites were already starting to jam with traffic. We crowded around the desks where we could get access to the sites. We couldn’t believe what was happening. I said a prayer for my cousin Tamera who works just a couple blocks up from the towers. I called my husband and told him to turn on the tv so he could relay info more quickly than we could get online. I heard about the Pentagon from him.
Phone calls kept coming in and clients were reacting in so many different ways. I remember when the markets re-opened afterwards one man said to me that we should compensate him for what he lost on the market because of all the “racket up in New York”. He said we should have known something like this would happen and protect his money. If only we had known…
Then, a couple of hours into it, our alarms went off. We were ordered to evacuate. It was pretty scary. We’re right near the airport. Someone had called in a bomb threat to the FBI and indicated that the bomb was in our office. By now the towers had collapsed and I was thinking how would I get out of my building if something happened here. I was thankful it’s only 5 stories. I was worried (and still am) for my wheelchair bound co-workers. My building seems so sturdy is seems impossible that it could fall. And that makes it even more impossible to me that those towers fell. I’ll never forget visiting the World Trade Center a few years ago. Looking up at towers so tall you couldn’t see the end of them. The markets closed and we were sent home to watch the horror on tv.
I finally talked to my cousin a couple of stressful days later. She’s ok. Her building was evacuated and she had to walk 5 hours home in a frightened, soot & ash covered city. Across the bridge and into Brooklyn where people she didn’t know offered her use of their phone, free water & food. She says she’s so proud to live in New York, now more than ever.
I want to remember the pride our country felt, the heroes of that day, the victims, their families and friends, the way our country pulled together. How everyone seemed to behave more nicely toward each other because we had suffered as a whole. How petty differences were put aside. How “I love you” ‘s seemed to come more easily and frequently, and naturally. I hope everyone will continue to remember these things and continue to demonstrate the kindness of heart that was shown this last year. I’ll be doing my best, and I’ll remember.
Bless Your Heart 