Where were you and what were you doing on this day 8 years ago? I am going to share here, please share yours in the comments.
It was a Tuesday, Koti was 11 months old that day. Because it was Tuesday we had MOPS (mothers of preschoolers). Ryan was 8 so he was a helper in the nursery(we were still a homeschool family so he was with me). At the time we were going through one of many rough patches so we had no cable TV, the kids were watching a video before we left. We lived in New Brunswick NJ in an apartment in the same complex as my mother and her and Jay worked together in NYC so commuted together. They left for work like any other day. In the car on the way to MOPS at about 9am I had a kids cassette playing for Ry & Koti so I didn't see the news before we left and didn't hear it on the radio on the way.
When we got there everything seemed normal. Some of the other moms were talking about an accident they heard a brief mention of on the news but no one seemed overly worried and the meeting began as normal. But half way in, at almost 10am a lady who worked in the office of the church we met in came in to make an announcement. This was very unusual and I started to feel anxious. She said, and I will never forget how pale and sick she looked, she said that a some of us may have heard, a plane had crashed into the twin towers (at the time she didn't know it was 2 or that it was an attack). They were sending us all home but if anyone needed to use the phone to check with loved ones in NYC or to call our homes we could use the church phone. She said school were closing and traffic was getting bad and we should please be careful.
I am a worrier by nature and my husband, mother, cousin & father (both who worked right near the twin towers) & brother (who is a NYC cop) were all in NYC so I was scared. But when I tried to use the phone and there were no lines into NYC I went into panic mode. I tried for about 10 minutes before my brain started working and I called home to check the answering machine. There was a message from Jay that he and my mother were ok but stuck at the office and one from my father that he was ok. Nothing about my brother or cousin. Also I was worried about a friend of ours who worked at the stock exchange.
Going home was a nightmare. The traffic was awful since the local community college I had to drive past was evacuating. When we finally made it home I felt so alone and cut off from the world with no way to monitor the news. Our downstairs neighbors, who we never really got to know were so sweet. The husband knocked on the door to say that he and his wife wanted to know if there was anything they could do for me. They knew Jay worked in NYC and I was alone with the kids. They offered to let me come watch the news with them. They offered to go to get Jay from where ever in NJ he could get from NYC, probably the ferry docks.
At the same time as these practical strangers were offering me their kindness, all over the area I lived reports were coming on the news about people dancing in the streets, burning American flags and celebrating these bloody attacks.
I spent the day pacing the floor and only breathing when Jay was able to check in, which was not often. Down the street at my mothers apartment my cousins kids, husband and mothers husband had finally heard from my cousin. My family was accounted for. But it was not lost on me how many other families were not so lucky.
Just last week Koti asked me what people meant when they talked about 9/11. She does not remember it since she was 11 months old. I couldn't answer her at the exact moment because of the time and place but today after school I will. If we don't tell our kids then some day there will be no one left to remember. And we all must....
Some things about me that are different now:
I will never be without a way to access the news either with tv or internet, I never want to feel that cut off from the world.
I used to love NYC, spent a lot of time as a young teen there, but am now afraid of it.
I never feel comfortable seeing planes in the sky, I always fear what might be happening on them, sucks cause in July 2011 I need to get on one. (was worse that first year, I kept expecting all the planes I saw to fall out of the sky)
I worry about Jay being in NYC for work, more now that he is downtown. And feel it most on this day.
Seeing the images of people celebrating the attacks changed how I viewed people.
2 comments:
It was early afternoon; a Tuesday. I had just got off the phone to my mother as I had booked us a holiday. I turned on Sky News and didn't understand what was happening because it was all so frantic - the second plane had just hit the South Tower minutes before. My mother phoned me back and said "are you watching this?" For some reason I asked "is this really happening?" Moments later came the realisation a friend of mine was in the towers. I screamed, cut my mother off, phoned my husband in London and he and his colleagues all crowded around the tv in reception to watch. We couldn't reach our friend - several of us tried all day. It was my daughter's first day at school as well, and when I returned in a daze from picking her up, the radio announced the towers were falling. I sat in the car and cried.
Our friend eventually reached us later that night. He was safe. He had been in the second tower and was told to evacuate by his boss when the first plane had hit. That manager saved their lives because people in the South Tower were being told to stay at their desks to allow room in the Plaza for those being evacuated from the North Tower.
Just a year before, my husband and I had visited him and stayed in the Marriott Hotel just a few doors down from the WTC. It was crushed to dust.
Just a couple of comments: don't dwell on the few morons who chose to celebrate the attacks. Focus on the heroes who fought to free the trapped. Focus on the heroes who walked up the stairwells in a vain attempt to put out an inferno whilst others ran down to escape. Focus on the heroes who looked after those affected in the following days/months/years. Tragedies bring out the best in people and the worst - why bother giving time to the worst?
Final thought: over ninety countries lost citizens in the 9/11 attacks. This wasn't an attack against the US, it was an attack against the world. I think sometimes this message gets lost.
Thanks Wendy for giving me a place to post my thoughts :)
Donna, you make a great point, this I think was in plain terms an attack on humanity
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