Sunday, September 11, 2011

Ten Years Later - 9/11/01


It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
It is so hard for me to remember exactly what happened two weeks ago, but I can remember clearly each and every detail of that day, ten years ago today.

- How blue the skies were that morning, not a cloud in the sky as I walked toward my midtown office building.

- The overjoyed feeling knowing my mom was on an American airlines flight to NYC at that very moment, to visit us and see the very first home we had purchased 6 weeks earlier.

- Wondering as I looked out my 34th St office window shortly after 8:46 am, while eating a buttered egg roll and coffee for breakfast, what could have possibly happened to the pilot to make him veer towards WTC Tower #1.

-  Calling Mr. Man, who worked across the street from the WTC to see if he felt anything, or had seen what happened.

- Looking on in shock as my coworkers and I saw the fireball emerge as the second tower was struck.

- The sheer panic and fear knowing America was under attack..... my mind registering, my Mom is on a flight that could possibly be filled with hijackers....my husband mere feet away from the disaster happening in lower Manhattan.  My sister alone with my daughter and nephew back in our home 70 miles away. 

Life as I knew it, had changed forever at that very moment.  My mom's flight was grounded in North Carolina immediately.  Once they landed, the choked up flight attendant informed the clueless passengers as to the reason why they were requested to land.  Hearing her voice on the phone was a welcome relief.  

The hours ticked by as I waited to hear any news from Mr. Man. I called his cell phone frantically, but since a Verizon cell tower was located on top of the WTC, my efforts were fruitless.  Finally, a little before noon, he contacted me to tell me he was walking uptown from Wall Street....approximately 7 mile walk.  I met up with him in front of my grandmother's apartment on Park Avenue and 38th Street.  Save for his shoes and bottom of his pants covered in soot, not a scratch on him.  

So many lives lost....2,977 innocent people murdered by an act of terrorism.  I pray for those families who mourn not only every September 11, but every day.  Those individuals will never be forgotten.

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