Remembering 9/11/01

I’m sure we all remember where we were on this date.

I had just started a new job.  I’d only been here about two months.  Man-Child was still a little guy only in the 2nd grade.

When we got news of the first plane hitting the tower – we were all in shock.  At that time, we all assumed it was a terrible accident of some sort. 

Many of the people in this building are actually from New York and had transferred when the company moved here.  So most of my co-workers still had family and friends there.

Then the second plane hit and we learned that it was in fact a terrorist act.  There were tears, screams, frantic phone calls.

Just as I was learning of all this the phone rang.  It was M-C’s school.  He’d had an accident.  Of course, my heart began to race even more.  Turns out it was a minor accident but they needed me to come get him.

I raced out of the office.  Driving to the school, I was listening to the radio, with tears just streaming down my face.  Then I heard about the 3rd plane and that it had hit the White House.  Of course, we all now know that wasn’t the case.  Just a bit of mis-information that was flying all around.  Turns out it was the Pentagon.  That didn’t make it any easier. 

When I arrived at the front office the administrative staff was tuned into the news.  But the teacher’s were doing their very best to keep it a normal day for the students.  In fact, I’m not even sure they made an announcement to the students.   It would have gone over their heads at the time anyway as they were all elementary students.

They would learn soon enough once they got home and began to see the horrible images coming across the TV screens.

I’m actually grateful that I had to pick the boy up.  Hubby came home early and we tended to Man-Child’s wounds (he had fallen and had some rocks embedded in his palms – fun stuff to try and remove) and spent the remainder of the day together.  I don’t know how I would have made it through the day at work.  I was too devastated.

Needless to say the graphic images kept running in a constant loop on the TV screen.  I finally had to tell hubby – enough.  M-C didn’t need to see or hear anymore and neither did I.  I had the loop running through my head already.  I cried until I couldn’t cry anymore.  And then cried some more.

I would like to take a moment to salute all the brave firemen, policemen and ordinary citizens who ran into the inferno to try and save whomever they could.  A salute to all those who volunteered time, service, money or food to those rescuers.  A salute to all the passengers of Flight 93 who brought down the plane in a field; rather than letting them take out another target.

You are the true representatives of what America is all about. 

Yes we, as citizens, are going through a very divisive time in our country.  But, as these brave people have shown, time after time, when it comes right down to it we can band together for the common good.

What did I do in the aftermath?  I held my family and friends just a little bit closer.  I cried.  I went to church and prayed.  To this day, remembering 9/11 brings my heart to a standstill and tears to my eyes.  And we were the lucky ones; we have family up North and family who works at the Pentagon.  No one was hurt.

Here it is 8 years later on day eerily reminiscent of that fateful day.  A beautiful day with a cloudless blue sky; a day where you just can not imagine the unthinkable.  And we fight on.  We fight to end terrorism the world over, not just on American soil.  Is war the answer?  To fight violence with violence?  I don’t know.  But what I do know is that terrorism must be eradicated world-wide.  We’ve barely been touched when compared to other places that must deal with terrorism on a daily basis.  It must stop.

So today I pray.  I pray for all rescue personnel who put their lives on the line everyday.  I pray for the soldiers stationed all over the world.  I pray for all those who’ve died and for those left behind.  But most of all, I pray for peace.