September 11 Anniversary. Where were you? Share here:

[maryisme]

When the first tower was hit I was sitting on the number 6 train on my way to 51st/Lexington Avenue. I was unaware of what happened until I got to my office and everyone was crowded around a TV listening to the coverage. We all thought it must have been some kind of freak accident. When the second plane hit, we of course all realized what was going on. Many people here were crying we all were in shock. I remember getting a phone call from my Mom who had been frantically trying to reach me. You see, she had no idea how far or close I was to downtown. My company gave us all a choice, stay put for as long as you like or try to get home. The subways were no longer running, everything was shut down. Myself and my neice starting the long walk over the 59th street bridge. It was a sight I will never, ever forget. Masses of people, all with the same dazed look on their face, walking over the bridge. Women were carrying their shoes. From the bridge, you could see the smoke from where the towers stood.

When we got over the bridge there were volunteers handing out bottles of water to everyone. As we continued walking, people were opening their homes to us. Some people set up tables and chairs outside of their homes for us to sit and rest. They offered snacks. They offered comfort.

When I finally made it home, I found other family members there also. Those who could not get home but was able to make it to my house. I remember thinking what was I going to feed them all. Anyway, just before dinner we said a prayer for all those who lost their lives and the families who were grieving for them. We gave thanks for being able to be together as a family.

Those are my recollections of that horrible day.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

God..I remember it like it was yesterday.

We had recently moved into our house,which is about 20 min from the job I had then. I was driving my old Buick Skylark to work that morning..I think it was around 8:30 or so when I left the house. About 5 min into the drive, I turned on the radio so I could put a tape in the cassette player (yeah my car was old..no CD player). One of the loca DJs was on, talking about what was going on in NYC. I thought it was a joke, as he is known for horribly tasteless jokes. But then ABC WorldWide news broke in and I knew it was for real. I was on autopilot. I barely was aware of what I was doing behind the wheel, glued to the radio broadcast.
When I went into work, I walked into the Employee Svc Center to clock in and asked the girls at the desk if they'd heard what was going on. I could tell from the looks on their faces they had. I got out to my register and immediately asked my supervisor if I could have one of the small radios we kept in case of bad weather emergencies at my station. She told me no. She said there was no reason to believe any of this was real, it was a bad joke and that business needed to continue as normal in a very cold fashion. I asked at the very least to be allowed to make a longdistance call to my mom to see if she'd heard from a friend of hers (my DB's godmother) who has a son who works in NYC as a chef. I was allowed to make a 5 min phonecall. Mom said Bobby (her friend's son)was ok and not to worry. But I worried anyway. I was shaking the entire day and it was very,very slow. After a few hours, when it was obvious it wouldnt' be busy, I asked to go home so I could watch the news. I was told forget it. The news wasn't important. Business was important and my only job was to stand there and act like nothing had happened. My sup was so cold there were icicles hanging from her butt!

When I finally got home that night, DH ordered a pizza and we watched with horror the footage from that morning. I cried so hard...I don't think I"ve ever cried that hard. For me, it was shadows of OKC all over again. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

A few days later, I was driving someplace..the bank I think...and Alan Jackson's "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?" came on the radio. I had to pull over so I wouldn't run off the road because I was crying too hard to see.

TOV

 

[Laura]

I was at work. We didn't have Internet access at the time; someone was listening to the radio and told everyone the news. We were all confused; was it an accident? Was it like the bomber that hit the Empire State Building in WWII? We listened as the reporter in NYC said that the first tower fell. The anchor asked, "the side of the tower?" and the reporter said, "no, the whole tower!!!" I couldn't believe it. I went up to the cafeteria during my break where there was a television. I was just in time to see the second tower fall. Meanwhile, we'd heard about the plane crash into the Pentagon. It got scary. After the second tower fell, I called my DH (then just my boyfriend) who had been laid off in June and was looking for a job. He was up but hadn't turned on the TV or radio or the computer. So I gave him the news and he turned on CNN. He was very quiet. For a few months after 9/11/01 he would turn the TV on as soon as he woke up to see if anything happened.

Not long after we got word of the crash in Pennsylvania we were sent home. I remember it was such a beautiful day. I work in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Lots of government buildings and some big skyscrapers in the city. Everyone was leaving, going home to the suburbs. It took an hour to get home when it usually takes 15 minutes. My BF (now DH) came over and we watched the news together.

I first visited NYC in 1993 and flew in on the day the World Trade Center was bombed. We didn't find out until we got to the hotel and turned on the news. Two days later on our way to the Statue of Liberty we drove past the WTC. I looked up at the buildings from street level and thought to myself that the towers could never fall, if a bomb like that hadn't toppled them. I have a picture of myself at the Statue of Liberty with the towers in the background. I treasure it.

I never cried. I still haven't cried over it. I haven't been back to NYC yet either. I probably will next month when I visit my brother in NJ. DH wants to see Ground Zero. Not me. It will be hard enough going to NYC and seeing that the towers are no longer there.

 

[mermaidlady]

I was getting my older kids off tho school. After they left I turned on the news about 8:30 CST. I was crying watching the towers fall and my youngest wanted to know what was so sad on his birthday. He turned 5 that day. Afterwards I called the school and they said they would keep the kids in school. So DS and I went to my mom's so we could get his present. We went to Woodfield which is a very large mall around my mom's. It was very quiet there. We got what he wanted and left.

 

[piglet too]

I was in the midst of getting my oldest off to school. I had a neighbors boy over too, I watched him and got him to the bus stop with my son. My husband called me and told me to turn on the news, I was arguing with him, as the boys were watching some cartoon and I did not want to hear them complain. He told me that a plane had hit the WTC, so I turned to ABC. Just as I did, the second plane hit. I still can hear Charlie and Diann's shock as they tried to report what was going on. My son asked me what was going on, and I tried to figure out a way to explain it to a second and third grader (the neighbor) with out scaring them too much. We proceed to the bus stop and I am with my friend trying not to talk about it but wanting to so badly. As we walked back to the house, another neighbor called us in and we watched TV there for close to an hour.

One thing that really sticks out in my mind of that day was how blue the skies were. I was laying in the yard late that afternnon and was just amazed at how blue and clear it was. Then I saw a plane. I gasped out in fear and tried to not freak out, as I knew all planes were supposed to be grounded. To this day, I do not know what that plane was. I have heard that it was either Air Force 1, or the plane that refulled AF1.

It turns out I was pregnant at the time. I wanted to pick a name with meaning to 9/11, so for a boy I picked Todd (after Todd Beamer) for a middle name. There were none that stuck out for a girl, so we just picked Lauren. I remember watching the documentary that was made by some guy who had been following one of the firehouse crews. They told about this woman who came out of the towers on fire. It was so sad, and then I heard that her story was going to be on Oprah. Well, I watched as I was drawn to all the stories from that day. By that time we had already picked a girls name, and much to my surprise, it was the same name as this lady who was the surrvivor who's story was being told. I feel it was fate that had me pick Lauren as a name. I had never really liked it before, but the day I came across it, it just felt right.

Thank you Rick for starting this thread. Thank you all for sharing too.

 

[welovedisneyx4]

I was at work and I remember my manager coming by and asking if I had heard about a jumbo jet crashing into the WTC. I told him "come on man, that is a really bad joke", he said he wasn't joking, but I still didn't belive him. He told me to ask another manager and he confirmed it and told us both about the 2nd plane.

We didn't have internet access or much personal phone use there. I asked for a break and called DH and MIL. I remember being so glad that DS (1 year old) was w/ my in-laws. I was worried about DD (who was in kindergarden), but her school had called and said they were leaving the kids there, but taking extra security measures as a precaution.

While we didn't have the internet or personal phone use, one part of the company sold tv's, so they sat up a large screen tv in the break room and we could watch that. I remember everyone just sitting there, not really talking, just staring at the tv, kind of in a daze.

DH and I watched tv for hours at night that week, not really talking much about it, but there was a feeling of just being there w/ each other and knowing the kids were safe in their beds. Luckily, DD wasn't quite old enough to realize too much of what was going on to be bothered by it.

I remember the beautiful day also. It was a perfect temputure and the sky was such a clear blue. I love days like that, but this is the first thing I think about when we have a day like that anymore.

Thanks also, Rick for starting this thread. I am always afraid people are going to forget.

 

[Chicago526]

I work as a travel agent, so this affected me a little more than the average person, though in a differant kind of way.

I work for a medical organization, booking doctors to attending meetings regarding our policies towards health care in general, and the organizations specialty in particular. They all get together to talk about whatever it is they talk about, to decide what our organizations policy towards an issue should be, issue guidelines for treatment, etc. My department books them their airline tickets. Our 2nd biggest meeting, about 1000 people, was to start on Sep. 13th.

I'm in Chicago, so I walk into my office at 8 AM, or 9 AM New York/Washington time, just as the first plane hit. We hadn't heard anything yet (as events were literaly just beging to happen). I'm a news junkie and log onto ABCNews.com everymorning. But I couldn't get on the site. I chalked it up to a server problem, and started working (turns out it was due to the news sites getting millions of hits, something they were not designed to handle). About 8:15 or 8:30, one of the other agents took a call, the caller said "did you hear about the plane hitting a building in NYC?" By the time we turned on the office radio, the plane had hit the second tower, and we knew we were under attack (funny thing, when I heard about the 2nd plane, I instantly thought "there are more, and they're heading to D.C." I hate being right sometimes). Our whole building (300 people) gathered around a t.v. in the lobby to watch the coverage on t.v. Except for the travel department, we had to get to work.

Our 1000 person meeting was canceled, and our larger national convention of 10,000 in October was in jepordy. We were fielding calls from frantic travelers that were now stranded due to flights being canceled and diverted. "How long with the ground-stop last?" they asked. "How should we know, this has never happend before!" we answered. We did our best to book train and car rentals so people could get home, and hotels in case they couldn't.

The airlines, for a change, were great. They refunded everything, and waived all kinds of change fees and policies. By the way, I've always felt that the unsung hero's of that day are the air traffic controlers. Landing thousands of planes on short notice, in just a few hours, without any accidents, was nothing short of a miracle.

The next few days, we worked 2 to 3 hours of overtime each night, refunding tickets, paying the airlines back the commision on refunded tickets (what, you think they let us keep it?) rebooking flights, rescheduling meetings. Our entire board of directors were stranded in China, unable to get home for over a week. We didn't cancel our convention, but dozens of smaller meetings were, and we had to deal with those too. Plus we had new meetings to book, as the government wanted our input into treatment in case of a biological attack. We had to book some of our docs to go to D.C. as soom as the planes were flying again.

All the while, my fellow agents and I were wondering if we'd have jobs in a few weeks, who would want to travel NOW? Would United and American go bankrupt? And every night going home and just watching the news with a sick feeling in my stomach. And my fingers hurt from all the typing, and my voice was harsh from talking on the phone all day long. I've never worked harder in my life.

But eventually, we got everything done. Our board made it home, all our travelers got home, with flights for upcomming meetings re-booked. And we learned that while our organization was cutting back on the number of meetings we were going to have, they would not need to lay anyone off.

 

[Oh Kay!]

I turned on TV around 8:50 and was about to sit down to nurse my son. WABC station came on. The image of the tower with smoke pluming out was on the screen and it is one I will never forget. I called my DH who was about to walk out the door, and he sat down next to me. At that point, the situation was being described as an accident. There was some speculation to a terrorist attack but the anchor downplayed it--until the second plane hit. I remember DH and I flipping through different channels. We saw the first tower come down on CNBC, and I can still hear the anchor groping for something to say and failing utterly. DH and I cried. We tried calling friends and family, and fortunately, they were all safe. I remember looking at DS3 and DS1 and thinking they will have no memories of the towers.

It took me over an year to not to cringe and brace myself everytime I saw an low-flying airplane--which is often as we live close to La Guardia airport. Even two days ago, as we sat at Shea Stadium with our two DS's to watch the Mets play, I couldn't quite relax as I could see planes flying at my eye-level.

Whenever I see the Manhattan skyline, my eyes automatically seek out the twin towers. In my mind's eye, I can still see them.

 

[wizzytoon]

My heart goes out to everyone this sept 11 and all the sept 11's to come.

I was working in my office on that day, my husband called to say he was getting called into work( he is a FDNY EMT) because a plane hit one of the towers. So I said I loved him and talk to him soon, it was almost 24hrs after that i finally hard from him and I knew that he was ok. Little did i know he was not ok, for the next 2 1/2 years we battled with drug and alcohol abuse, we also had a one year old at that time. We got him the help he needed and fianlly have a fiamly again. I thank god everyday that he gave him two chances at life.

 

[lilpritch04]

I will never forget that day. I was not even born when JFK was shot, but my mom relates that event to 9/11 and now I understand.

I was working administration in a dental lab and we all had radios going. Most of us listened to music, but one of the waxers listened to WCCO and all of a sudden he just yelled that the tower had been hit. In disbelief we all ran back to the break room and turned on the TV. We watched for only a moment when we saw the 2nd plane hit LIVE. I remember that moment so vividly.

 

[Dee & Greg]

Our story pales in comparision to many of you who have posted.
We were with a travel group in Quebec, Canada. We were due to fly out at noon on 9/11 (I still have the tickets). The porter was just knocking on our door to pick up our luggage when the first plane hit. DH was watching TV and I was talking to the porter... immediately DH knew it was terrorism.
Needless to say, our plane didn't take off and we were stranded in a beautiful city that cried with us. The French Canadians had the same devestated look on their faces that we had.
We were the first plane to land in Indianapolis.. the Friday after 9/11. The place was a ghost town, and it was the National Day of Mourning.
We felt we were in another world.. not the one we had left just one week earlier. The strangest part was being in another county; the borders were closed; and knowing you couldn't get home if you wanted...

 

[JVL1018]

I live in NJ about 5 miles from the GWBridge.
My son was 5 days old on September 11th, he had an appointment at the pediatrican at 9:30 am that day. My husband had an 8 am class and was going to stop at the ped and then head to work.
I was busy getting the baby and my not yet 2 year old daughter fed and dressed when Jim(DH) called me and said "Turn on the TV" So I turned it on and all I got was snow-the TV was on ABC.
I said What the...I think the Cable is out, why what's going on..as I started flipping through the channles trying to find one.
Jim said he was listening to Howard Stern(btw @@) and that they said a plane flew into one of the twin towers.
I got one of the cable news stations in and was assuming it was a small plane, but before I learned anything else, I had to get out of the house to go to the doctor.
We drove the 10 minutes, listening to the radio the whole time, found out that both towers were hit.

I met Jim at the ped, got Matt weighed, measured, glanced at(the radio was on in the reception area and we all wanted to get back out there asap)got in our cars and as we were both pulling out of the parking lot we heard that the tower had fallen.
I remember looking through the windshield at my husband in his car to see if he had heard it and the look of shock on his face.
He drove to work, I drove home crying crying crying.

I got home and my brother called me to tell me he and his fire dept were lined up ready to go across the bridge into the city and he was looking for Jimmy because Jimmy's fire dept was right behind him. I told him that Jim was at work(he is a volunteer, as is my brother). Then I told my brother to walk away and I would come and get him, that he was NOT allowed to go into the city and be killed. Needless to say he didn't listen to his crazy big sister..but they ended up not going in anywy because it was too late.

I was glued to the TV, DH and I kept calling each other back and forth, they sent him home around noon and he stopped here and went to the FD with me telling him that I would kill him myself if he went into the city. But the trucks had all left when he had gotten there so he just came home.
I remember it was such a gorgeous day here in the suburbs of NYC, and I could not believe that something so terrible was happening just a few miles away and you would have had no idea, there was no smoke, nothing visible here.

It was a very odd time for someone with a newborn, very scary what kind of world this little baby had been born into.
I would wake up at nihght to nurse him and watch TV obsessively throughout the night.

 

[EeyoreJMH]

I was at my office in Boston and DH was working from home. As a colleague and I were discussing a project, one of the editor-in-chiefs ran out from her office-- a plane had hit the World Trade Center! I sort of stared at her and dumbly thought-- it's fine-- we were just there on Sunday (we had stayed for several days at the WTC Marriott).

Quickly we tried accessing all the usual media sites from my computer-- we caught a glimpse of a photo of the tower and couldn't beleive our eyes. Then all the servers were busy so we went from office to office in search of someone with a radio. My DH called and tried to describe what he was seeing on the news, then the second tower was hit. Now my office is one building over from the John Hancock building, so were were getting a little nervous, never mind that we were still trying to process the tragedy in New York. At about 10:30 am it was decided that we should evacutate.

Because we were leery of riding the T (subway), we walked through the Boston Common and Public Gardens. It was unreal-- people just exiting Back Bay office buildings and streaming out of the city. I can't imagine what it must have been like in New York. We would stop by cabs parked on the street with their radios up at full volume relaying the latest news. Several of us had to get to the North Station (Fleet center) commuter rail and we skirted quickly by the federal building next door-- everyone was unsure what else would be targeted. At the train station, they had extra trains and were doing their best to get everyone on board a train to their destination. I never saw such amazing teamwork as I did that day. T executives in full suits acted as conductors and train schedules were thrown out the window. Trains would make every and all stops, often with multiple trains on the same line. I frantically kept trying to reach my DH on the cell (he had dropped me off at the train station that morning), but understandably all circuits were busy. I finally reached him and asked if he could meet me closer to Boston-- I just wanted to get to him as soon as possible. One person on the train had a portable radio and reports were coming in that hijacked planes were heading for Boston (these ended up being false reports amid the confusion).

We came home and were glued to the news until late that night. We couldn't beleive that the place we had been 36 hours ago no longer existed. It was a bit creepy when the credit card statement came in for the trip and we found that the charge had posted on 9/11. To this day I still cannot beleive the horrors NY must have felt that day.

 

[UncleKyle]

I was at Disney World on the college program. Lived with 3000 other college students and worked at Disney for a semester. I didn't have to work at MGM still that afternoon. So that morning I was asleep as were all of my roomates. For some reason my cell phone was off (its never off). So my mom was calling our apartment and I heard her frantic voice asking me to wake up and call her back. I immediatly thought it was a family emergency but when I called her back she told me to turn on the TV, we're under attack. Being a national security geek has it's advantages and as soon as I saw the two towers burning I said "Mom it's Osama Bin Ladin". Mom actually listens when I talk about national security matters so she knew who I was talking about, sadly when I said his name later on to my roomates they had no idea who he was. I woke all of them up and we were glued to the TV for the rest of the day. They closed the parks and only one of us worked at a hotel and he had to work.

I remember the rest of the week being such an odd and errie feeling at the parks. Everyone was super nice and so quiet. People walked to and from the attractions with hardly a word spoken. Even kids and babies were on their best behavior. It's all something I'll never forget and I'm sure I'll describe to my grand children when they ask me someday.

 

[SnoWhite]

I was at home, sleeping. I got a phone call from my Mother who was at work. She just kept screaming into the phone "Turn on the TV, Doesn't Duane work at the WTC?" I said "yes, what does that have to do with anything", and then I saw what was on the TV. I sat up in bed, and immediately tried to call my friend Duane. He and I had been close friends for years. He lives in NYC and worked in the WTC. I was terrified that he may not make it out.

I called his house, and it rang and rang. I called again, and finally I got through. He was watching the news and didn't say much, other than the fact that he had slept through his alarm clock that day and was late for a meeting. He thought he was going to be fired, and was just on his way out the door when it happened. Almost everyone at his company died that day in the WTC. Had he been there, he most likely would have met the same fate. He and I sat on the phone for hours, both watching TV, me from Seattle, him from NY. We were both watching when the first tower fell. He screamed into the phone "the tower just fell" I said "no it didn't..." but then I realized it had.

I had to get ready and go to work that day, but called him a few more times during the day to make sure he was ok.

I can't imagine how hard it must have been for those of you that lived in NYC. I still haven't been back to NYC since then, but am planning a trip next year. I can't wait to see the city again, I love it there.

Thanks Rick for such a great post. It really touched my heart.

Lisa

 

[buddy&wooz]

I was getting ready to head out the door to go bowling with my league. My husband called me from a job site (he's an engineer) in Edgewater NJ (directly across the river from Manhattan) to tell me one of the towers was burning and apparently a plane had hit it. I turned on the TV and the anchors, like most of us, assumed it was an accident, most reports said "a small plane" had hit the tower. Suddenly the other plane hit, and I screamed at my husband (still on the phone) "Did you see that?!" I told him what they were saying on the news.

I watched for awhile (dh had to get off the line) and decided to head to the bowling alley just so I could be with other people. Everyone showed up, and we bowled between trips over to the bar where the TVs were showing what was happening in NYC. As the morning went on, the towers fell... Those of us with kids in school were wondering whether to bring them home or not (we live about 20 minutes from NYC in central NJ.) Someone called the elementary school and they suggested we leave the kids rather than start a panic if droves of parents started arriving. I agreed and left my kids in school. Meanwhile other women were trying to call their husbands and other family members. Two women couldn't reach their husbands, both were in lower Manhattan. One said her husband was supposed to be at a meeting at the WTC that morning. We later found out he was a victim. He was the former fire chief in our town, and I'm sure he was trying to help when the towers fell. My husband was sent home as they were prepping the area he was in to help the injured (a need that never materialized.)

The two of us had just spent a long weekend three weeks earlier at the WTC Marriott. I kept thinking of the people that worked there. The porter from Ghana who was impressed that my husband knew that Ghanians are often named after the day of the week they're born. The woman at the desk who made sure we were happy with our room. The waitress at the Greatest Bar on Earth who had served us dinner with a scowl, but quickly and efficiently. The elevator guy who laughed and knew we were headed to the bar and not to Windows on the World because, well, we weren't dressed in our finest!

After the initial chaos, my memories are of sitting with my neighbor in her yard waiting to hear from her husband (he was ok) while watching the clear blue sky, wondering what had happened. The eerie silence of the next few air-traffic free days (who knew how much the sound of planes had become part of the landscape?) The fear in my gut the next day when a military jet flew low over our town (I knew it was "the good guys" but I felt sheer terror anyway.) And the smell, and orangey haze, that passed through the next day. It smelled like tempura paints, and it was dust from the towers. I closed my windows and cried.

 

[hydster]

These stories really bring it all back don't they? It makes me sad every time I think about it.

We were in Disneyland hotel. We were supposed to have early entry that morning so we were getting showered and dressed. The kids were in our room watching cartoons and my parents had the tv on in the connecting room when my mom called me in to see "this show" as she called it. I walked in there and my dad's face was pale so I glanced at the tv and saw the 2nd plane hit. It was one of those "what did I just see moments" where you swear your eyes just played a trick on your brain or something. They kept showing it over and over and over. I went in and told dh about it while he was in the shower and I remember saying to him "2 planes just hit the WTC towers and they are on fire" and he couldn't comprehend it either.

We were trying to get ready to go to DL (still not realizing how real the situation was I guess) and when we finally got ready we walked outside and the main road in front of DL was empty! Not a car in sight. If you've ever been there you know that road is full all of the time. It was really eerie. We walked across the street and were just getting to the entry lines when the CM"s discreetly told the adults they were closing due to the events back East.

Our kids had no comprehension of why they couldn't go to Disneyland and started crying and the adults started crying as well knowing that our children would never grow up in a "safe" world.

We had taken a car service to our hotel and since they closed everything in California we decided to rent a van and drive to the beach. It was a foggy,cool morning and it just seemed to fit the ominous mood around that day. I look at the pictures we took of the kids playing in the ocean and how gray the sky was behind them and it makes me sick.

I remember how desperate I was to just get home. I didn't want to be there I wanted to be in the "safety" of my own home and not in a hotel room stranded for however long we were going to be stranded. We were due to fly home originally on the 13th but didn't end up getting home until the 17th. It was eerie walking around the Orange County airport with Natl Guard armed with rifles, dogs and the giftshops still had the papers in them from the morning delivery on 9-11.

I don't think I've ever been so thankful to be home with my family as I was when we walked in on the 17th of September.

Heidi

 

[Strawberry Lemonade]

Everyone's stories are very touching.

I wasn't up and about on 9/11 because I was on heavy painkillers for kidney stones. My mother and DH both called me to get me to wake up to turn on the TV. I ended up turning it on right after the second plane hit. I spent the rest of the day alternating between sleeping and watching the news.

It was very surreal. I was enjoying a piece of birthday cake one day and woke up to a changed world the next.

 

[POOH&PIGLET]

RickinNYC - I am sorry for your loss. Your wonderfully well written words bring back so much emotion.

I remember the morning of 9/11 as a picture perfect day. The sky was so blue. I remember listening to the radio after the first plane hit. I could see the towers from my office window. I could see the second plane off in the distance as it flew in. From the time I first saw the plane to when it hit the second tower seemed an eternity. When I saw the impact of the second plane I thought oh my god, all those people on the plane just died. Little did I know that the worst was yet to come.

 

[ziggystardust]

So for my story...

I was asleep, which was odd b/c I normally am wide awake at that point preparing for school, but for some reason my alarm didn't go off that morning. If it had I would have heard Howard Stern talking about it, but I never did. My phone rang, it was my boyfriend, "Have you been watching the TV!!!" No I reply, I'm asleep, realizing the time, I jumped up. He said a plane crashed into the twin towers, turn the TV on. What happened. I couldn't comprehend. I say "Oh my GOD, My uncle is in there!!! I have to go !" I call my mom who already knows, I call my sister who was about to go into the city. I turn on every tv in the house, the computer is on, I'll IM people to find out whos where. I'm on the phone with my sister as the towers fall, we are speechless. No one can get a hold of my uncles, one who is a Port Authority Cop who is stationed in the towers, the other works for the city in a building across the st. My father is thankfully in CA (stuck there for days) with a whole bunch of his fellow electricians, some of whom would have been working there that day. My aunt who lives in NYC is in Chicago. My boyfriend who had been working in that area for a month at his new job ( who had called me every day at his lunch break to tell me how beautiful it was looking up at the towers) was some how told to go upstate that day to work. Which I was so thankful for. By the early afternoon - everyone was at my house just staring at the TV, it was then that we saw my uncle (the cop) running away from the giant cloud of smoke that engulfed the city. We saw him, but was it really him? We kept watching to see if they would rerun it, but we were sure it was him- he ran right in front of the camera. It was him! My father called- "what the hell is going on?!" he said. I told him we saw Uncle Greg on TV. That we had no idea what was going on. He was calling on a payphone and couldn't talk b/c all of his friends knew people there and needed to check on their families too. The call was short.
My immediate family was safe. My uncle, I don't know how he is managing life now, seeing all that he saw that day (and the days following - he was stationed in the make shift morgue) and loosing as many friends and co-workers as he did. We lost some close friends, and we lost our sense of security. My boyfriend lost his neighbor, my father's friend lost his daughter. Everyone in NY knows someone that was there, that was lost. No one in NY will ever forget that day, the feelings that rushed through your body that morning. The frantic laundry list of your friends and family and where they are. We went to the memorials and the wakes, passed the funeral homes where the lines were around the block, we smelt that smell that you can't describe and didn't really want to, we lit the candles and hung our flags from anywhere we could, we saw the faces that were no longer here with us. It was hard and will always be hard, but we will never forget.