252 20 70359 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was working as a cook for a nursing home, and my mother (who also works there) came into the kitchen and said that there was an accident in New York. A plane just hit one of the towers. She came back in about 5-10 minutes later and said it was no accident, another plane flew into the other tower. My manager, coworkers and myself just held each other and cried and prayed for the lost, and the survivors. When i got home, all I could concentrate on was the news, I sat and cried and cried with my family, and we all prayed for the loved ones that were at lost, and all the children that had died. I was really scared when I found out about the Pentagon and then Pa., still today it send cold chills rushing down my spine. I did not know any that had lost their lives, but I still pray for all the families and victims. For at least the next few weeks, that is all I would watch, just trying to understand WHY, this happened to our great country. Thank You, V.B Ga. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story9779.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 67.33.159.94 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I get the chills everytime I re-think about this day! I was in bed that morning, I am in California - 3 hours behind New York. I remember waking up to something holding me face down on the bed. And I felt pain...lots of pain....I was really scared! I don't know what it was and I had never expierenced this before. All I could do was shut my eyes and pray. Pray for what I don't know....then I started crying uncontrolably...why...I did not know...still praying.....about 30 minutes later my boyfiend, who had already left for work that morning, called and said turn on the television...somethings going on in New York!!! I did...and I can only assume that I was expierencing things from that day. Since that day I have not expierenced anything like that. I do not mean to offend anyone with this story, because I have never spoken of this to anyone until now. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story7934.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-18 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 63.203.102.60 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was at work when one of my coworkers received a phone call from his wife telling him that something strange was going on in New York during a live TV show that was being aired at the time. She told him that a plane had hit one of the Trade Center Towers. At the time, I thought it was only an accident or a flight miscalculation of some sort. Then, she excitedly called back and said that another plane had hit the second tower. We hurried to the TV in our conference room to see what was going on. It still didn't register with me at this point that it was anything other than a freakish accident, or a bad bit of disaster epic being created for the movies. As the news continued on, we all came to the realization that these definitely were no accidents, but aggressive acts of terrorism, and we were sickened by what we were viewing as we watched the screen intently. Some of us cried during that time as I remember. I couldn't help but think of the people in those buildings, and of the desperate and helpless families who had to witness this event as it was unfolding before their eyes, aware that their loved ones may be trapped inside. It was a sickening thing to watch, and still is for me. That was my personal experience of that tragic day on September 11, 2001. My only hope is that it may never happen again. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1899.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-08 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 63.147.11.146 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: On that day in 2001, I was teaching a classroom full of first graders. I had just taken them to their music class and was walking down the hall when another teacher pulled me into her room and said, you have got to see this. For some reason, she had her TV on while her class had gone to their special. We saw the smoke and then we saw the second plane hit. As the morning went on, the teachers would whisper to each other in the hall the latest news. I decided to tell my class what had happened in so many words. I told them some bad people had caught some buildings on fire in NYC. I pulled down the map and showed them where that was. I was going to leave the details for the parents to explain to them, that was for them to share and help their children understand, not me. They would have all heard it by the time school started the next day anyway. I will never forget the worried little faces on those children. Now, the kids in my class were barly even born on that day, some of them have no idea what happened. So, I sit here on the fifth anniversary after just having shipped my husband off this morning to his first deployment for a year to the middle east. Remembering that day and remembering why he has gone to serve his country. Everyone says, oh what a day to go. I say, it reminds us why he is going and leave it at that. That really makes someone think. So, here I sit, thinking about the huge chore ahead of me, the kids, thinking of him, the first time to leave home for over 2 weeks, and this time it is a year! I think about all of those families who lost loved ones and won't get them back, in even a year. I thank them for being strong and for their sacrafice. Remember, everything happens for a reason and in it's own time. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story20675.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2006-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 69.221.124.216 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I suppose my experience was like any other. I remember feeling my day was so dull and so redundant that I would accept any change in my day, and by the end of that day, I prayed endlessly for everything to be the same as it was before. I was just leaving chemistry with my friend, Peterson, and we had entered the science hall, which was unusually packed and filled with excited students. I overheard shouts about the World Trade Centre, and had heard that it had even collapsed. Peterson and I had our doubts. the people that were shouting these things weren't exactly credible sources for the sum of 1+1, nevermind current events. I immediately thought back to a few eyars ago, when a radio duo by the name of Opie and Anthony had played an April fools joke and had reported that (now former) governer Paul Cellucci had died. I tossed the thought of a Terrorist Attack out of my train of thought and pushed the doors open into the main hall. But upon entering the main hall...the look on everyone's faces. the terror, the confusion. Peterson and I looked at each other, and I said, "...they're not kidding." Without even thinking, we rushed to the closest teacher department, which was the math department. There were 4 other teachers in there, all of whom who would've screamed at us to get the hell out under any other circumstances. But that day, they didn't even look at us. All seven of us were huddled over a tiny radio, and that's when I heard it: "At about a quarter to nine, a plane hit the world trade center, followed shortly by another that hit the other tower. Not long after, both towers collapsed, filling all of the surrounding area with an impearmiable fog and the askes of what is undoubtably the fragments of the dead." Peterson and I went to MAth right after, and announced the news to the class, and shortly after, the school recieved something I hoped my generation would avoid. the Principal's announcement. The principals of 1942 announced it. the principals of 1962, 1969, and now, 2001 have announced it. I was afraid to hear it, to come to the full realization that my country was in peril, that my country is under attack. I didn't eat that whole day. I just sat in front of the TV's in the library, watching. I sat on my bed in front of my TV, watching. I couldn't turn away for weeks. Who did this? Why? What did we do? What are we doing about this? When can I laugh again? I soon found out that I had lost no one, and at the time, the death estimation was 5,000, and an extreme guilt overcame me. That day I decided to write a play about september 11th, and now, I have started it, and hopefully, when I get out of college, I'll be able to put it out and send everyone my own interpretation and emotion during that day. But my biggest hope is that everyone will remember that sense of unity during the months following september eleventh. I remember thinking it odd that it was a tuesday. I remember the flags everywhere. I remember putting out my candle. But most of all, I remember hearing that national anthem in UT stadium, and seeing grown men; tough, gritty, hard grown men from Texas, staring intently at that flag with their chins held high and hands held proudly over their hearts, singing. And I remember that feeling of pride that came over me, and it was then, that I immediately knew that we had won. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1929.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-08 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 24.61.32.207 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: My story starts in my third period class at Irving Middle School. I was in math class with Mrs. Cable, my math teacher. Then all of sudden the door burst open, and a lady whom I didn?t know, came in and spoke to Mrs. Cable in a really low whisper. Then she ran from the room. No one really knew why she did, but we didn?t care?at the time. A few minutes later an administrator came in and took us out to the ?teen living? room, which had this living room area with a TV. When we got there, Mrs. Cable was there, along with both of the ?teen living? teachers. We all got in, and were all very confused at what was going on. We had no idea. It was like, 10:30 or so by now. Mrs. Cable was silently crying. Then she all of a sudden bursts into tears, and when everyone tries to ask her what was wrong, another teacher spoke up saying, ?Nothing, nothings wrong?. Then Mrs. Cable broke out and said, ?They are going to find out sooner or later.? She proceeded to tell us about the plane that hit the World Trade Center. Then she told us of the plane that hit the Pentagon. All of sudden a boy named Josh stood up and screamed, ?NOOO MY DADDY?S IN THERE?. And began saying, ?I need to call my mom. Let me call my mom.? But she wasn?t there. I can still remember the panic of this kid. By this time tears were streaming down his face. And he was trying to run. Where too? Who knows? Home presumably. But the teachers wouldn?t let him leave. All this time he was screaming, ?Daddy, I want my daddy.? After lunch I went to my Science class. Mrs. Novak who was my teacher kept saying, it doesn?t matter; we need to work on science. You can watch it when you get home, but no one was paying attention to a word she had said. The only thing we cared about was the chaos that was going on in New York and DC. Finally, we won, and she turned on the TV and to our dismay we found out that another plane had hit the other Tower. It was devastating. Only now do I realize what an impact that has had in my life, and on the lives of the people around me, especially my dad, a retired army LT Col. He had several friends who were in the Pentagon when the plane hit, and one close friend who was opening the door to his office when it hit, and he was blown out. The door saved his life; he was the only one in his office to survive. 9/11 was defiantly a tragedy. Those who did the attacks should be punished, but now only God can punish them, but I know he will forgive them. I still remember that day like it was yesterday. I remember smelling the smoke from my house, which is less than 15 miles from the Pentagon. It was awful?. 9/11 we will remember 9/11 we will remember 9/11 we will remember 9/11 we will remember 9/11 we will remember 9/11 we will remember 9/11 we will remember 9/11 we will remember 9/11 we will remember 9/11 we will remember Justin Brooks age 17 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story10870.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2004-09-10 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 151.188.16.21 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was sitting at my desk when I heard the first plane hit, although at the time I thought it was a car backfiring (we usually have the windows open and hear a lot of street noise). About 2 minutes later a female coworker came in and said a plane had hit a tower. We are on the 26th floor and could see the towers by looking directly over city hall, we had no buildings in the way. As we watched the papers falling and the smoke being pulled over towards Brooklyn 2 female coworkers left; and I remember that most people left in the office were saying that it could not have been an accident. In typical NY fashion 4 guys (me included) were huddled at a window looking out and up at the WTC; one said that he was going back to his desk to get his coffee and another went to answer his phone. While the 2 of us left at the window continued to watch we saw the second plane come right up out of the south and disintegrate into a huge fireball, I don't remember hearing anything, just one second the plane was impossibly close to the building and the next it was gone. We looked at each other and knew that these were definitely not accidents. I then went back to my desk and spoke to my cousin in midtown and my mother who was living in London at the time; I tried to call home (Queens) but couldn't get through. I called my cousin in midtown again and told him that we would be leaving soon and asked if he could continue to try my wife. We received word that we had to vacate the building; my immediate boss and I (the only ones left) shut down all the computers, lights, and anything else we could think of because we could sense that we might not be back for a while. Outside I stopped to have a cigarette before I started to walk all the way uptown to cross the 59th Street bridge (I live in Queens and figured that Queens BLVD would be the best place to get picked up to get home). On the way uptown I walked along Broadway right in the middle of the street, after a few minutes I stopped turning around to look at the burning WTC. I remember seeing people coming out of stores with little disposable cameras and heading down to the WTC, but they didn't look like rescue workers or photojournalists...About the time I reached 35th Street I tried my wife again (no service), and then my cousin who worked on 47th Street, I needed to rest. When he wasn't there I got a little nervous (turns out the whole city was being let go, but I didn't know that yet). While I was waiting on line for the phone to try my wife one more time (I now have a cellphone) some guy started shouting "One tower has fallen, one tower has fallen". I didn't want to believe him and I kept telling myself that the crashes had been so high up on the towers that it wasn't possible, but when I walked into the middle of the street and saw only one smoking building I knew things had gotten worse. I walked to about 48th Street and tried Queens again, and then I started to cross the bridge...that was the worst, seeing this big gaping hole in the skyline when you were used to seeing everything so symmetrical, and all the smoke washing over Brooklyn. I got to Queens and walked along Skillman Ave. until I could call my wife; about 20 minutes later she picked me up and we went home to watch what was happening. I was not able to go to work for almost 2 weeks, and when we did get back to the office we had some cleanup to do; phone service was restored about 3 weeks after we came back. I have not been to the site since that day, although occassionally I still stand at that window and look out in that direction. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story9335.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-06-03 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 208.27.111.121 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: My son was in kindergaten, he was doing the weather for his class on 9/11, everyday for a week he would get up and watch the weather so that he could report it to his class, I was in my bedroom and my son said mom turn on the news, a plane hit a tower, i said what do you mean, i turned on the news and sure enough he was right, the first plane just hit the tower, to this day my son still remembers what happened, god bless all of the familys and friends of the lost ones, they will never be forgoten, amen Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story3223.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 130.13.106.81 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: SURVIVOR OF WTC 21ST FLOOR, TOWER 1 Thanks for your concern for all of us. We got out just in time after the second airplane hit Tower 2. (9/11/2001) The plane went completely into the building allowing all of the survivors (us) included, to rush across the street, north of the Financial Center. We stood there for a short while watching the towering inferno. I saw people jumping from the gash of Tower 1. All of the USS staff exited the building safely and are alive. <Note that 9/11 = 911 code-emergency> Stepping back to the beginning, approx 8:45am, I was looking for a file to support an expense on our July reports. Suddenly, I heard a muffled explosion with echoed report, rocking the tower at least a foot, back and forth, like an amusement park ride. I was thrown against a desk. All filing cabinets slid open. I tried to close them but there were too many. Roger said later to us that he thought that the tower was going to fall. It didn't, allowing us to exit to the stairs, but not until I turned off my computer properly, and coming back again in my office to get as many towels I could get to cover our faces, on the lightly Smokey stairwell. I forgot to douse the towels with water, but it was better than nothing. Amazingly I thought we were going to come back sometime, like in 1993. It was hard to think, to take anything out with me. Going down the stairs, we went through water coming from the sprinklers and ceiling cascading down the stairs. People suddenly stopped moving down and I thought the worse, as I thought there was bomb damage below us and we were going right towards it. I was full of anxiety in my thoughts. We started to move again and finally I saw daylight, out from the stairwell door on the plaza level, overlooking the elevators. There were bodies near the 1993 Memorial on the plaza outside. The huge windows were all cracked with gaping holes. We then were following each other slowly down the still moving escalator, people screamed to go down faster toward the WTC Marriott Hotel entrance. We were led to the then SAFE, at the time, Tower 2, as mentioned above. (The second airplane hit Tower 2 at the same time we were about to exit to the street). Diane ahead of us actually saw the second airplane hit the center. She was right under it. Ron broke up from us to try and locate our other staff members, Crystal, Olga and Maritzela. There were shoes on the ground facing away from the WTC, left behind by someone and all kind of things in the rush to get away. We then went to Rogers apartment building, but only Roger was allowed up to his apartment. Eileen, Diane, Mark and I were asked to leave the lobby. We went to the small park behind the building. We could see only one half of Tower 2. It was burning, (another building was in front of it). Because of that obstructed view, when Tower 2 collapsed, it looked like it liquefied and started pouring down, getting lower by steps all the way, like a decreasing waterfall. The sound was like Niagara Falls, from the vantage point of the Maid of the Mist, at the base of the falls in Canada. I will never forget that sound, that rumbling sound. The black acrid smoke chased towards us like a freight train, leaving no time to think of what to do to beat it. There are 10 foot plus walls around the open park area. I did not want to jump due to my recent bipass operation. At this time I did not know where Diane, Eileen or Mark were, I could not see anyone, like a nuclear winter. It was an every man for himself rule at this time. Ron never came back with us. Later I found out that he was OK. The air was getting dark with ash and smoke. I went left to the wall, and saw a table on the ground below. I went over the wall onto the table. I could not see, except for a partial outline of a door frame. I grabbed the frame and pulled it open against people on the other side trying to shut it, to keep the dust out and to limit the people who could get in, lest the room fill up with dust and smoke. This was a restaurant underneath Rogers building!! I stayed alive for the third time, I thanked God that I was spared again. There actually was a cruller on a dish in front of me. Just me! I felt strange, but I took a piece of it. I thought of everyone else and their ordeal. All was not over. We were given water and napkins to soak with water. One man was injured and was being treated on a table. Firemen walked in and asked for anyone with medical experience to volunteer and also wanted the restaurant as a Command Post. The dust was subsiding and all of us were asked to leave. I took another folded napkin in a basket near the door, to find out later it still had a knife and fork wrapped up in it. I found out later that Mark, Diane and Eileen were picked up by a Fire boat and taken to Jersey City at this time. I started to walk down the waterside walkway to Battery Park. I reconnected with Roger. He was caring for an 89 year old woman from his apartment. She stayed with us on our trek down to the Ferry Terminal area. We never made it. Tower 1 collapsed with the same furious sound as Tower 2. It looked like a volcano. The smoke and dust was pouring towards us. We kept on walking. I was behind Roger, barely seeing his shoes to guide me. Our faces were looking down to the ground for protection from falling ash and debris, sometimes walking blindly into the bushes nearby. Lucky for all of us, this time, the smoke and ash started to go south away from the waters edge but towards the Ferry Terminal Building. We saw Coast Guard, Fire boats and the New York Waterway Ferries from NJ come to rescue us. They lined up behind the bulkhead railings. Taking on one person at a time, in the middle front of the ferry, WOMEN AND CHILDREN first. I commented "Just like the Titanic". People agreed seriously. Rogers new found friend was taken aboard first. I had to be picked up firemans style and placed on the deck. I was given first class treatment by the deck hand, checking on me later to see if I was all right. We were taken to Jersey City. Walked to all hotels to no avail for a room, ending up at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel. Later that night, Roger got 3 rooms with the help of an HSBC employee that also let us use her phone in the hotel conference room. The hotel was holding, honoring, reservations for non arriving passengers from the airport even though all flights were canceled. My son picked me up, traveling from Connecticut. The bridges to Staten Island were opened again on 9/12/01. A military jet flew by, breaking the sound barrier toward NYC. What a moving sight at this time! We are at War.......... Home again and alive and well.................. God Bless America!!! Richard P. LoPresti United Seamen's Service, Inc. Chief Accountant Suite 2161 One World Trade Center New York, NY 10048 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story273.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-03-19 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 165.247.31.165 Annotation Annotations to this item. Environmental/Health Impact Firefighters Ground zero- at or about Personal connection to someone at site Rescue/clean-up workers/volunteers Struggle to get home WTC, attack WTC, worked in (ever) NY:1 Feature Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: getting ready to go to the airport,when the neigbor said a plane crashed,watched the tv,and was shocked,had to stay for days,before i could leave out of Dulles,it was so heart wrenching,i am a veteran,it still affects me, i hurt so much for those lost smeone Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story10137.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-09-23 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 152.163.252.131 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was 7 1/2 month pregnant with my son and was working at our local Head Start Preschool. I was getting up at 4:30 a.m. at that time to make it work at 6:00 a.m. to open the center. It was right before recess when our supervisor came in and pulled me to the side. As we unpacked books, he said, "A bomb has hit the world trade center." He was always joking about everything, so I said, "You're kidding, right?" As serious as he could get, he looked me in the eyes and said, "I'm not kidding. The pentagon has been hit, too. Everyone is on a state of alert." I couldn't believe what I had just heard. It was my duty to inform everyone else of the events. He received a phone call while he was at our center. He then told me that it wasn't bombs. It was airliners with passengers on them. I could do nothing but gasp in disbelief. I was overcome by grief as well. All of the innocent lives taken and at the time, we had no clue why. I pulled our head teacher off and told her and then the other assistant. They were in shock. We had to appear as if nothing were wrong for the sake of our children. I had a doctor's appointment that day in which I had to journey to downtown Dayton. I was hearing that certain streets were closed around the city buildings and federal buildings. As soon as I started for Dayton, I called my mom on my cell phone. I asked her what had happened. That's when I heard the entire story. The Pentagon had been crashed into by a jet liner carrying passengers. A plane had crashed in Pennsylvania and was thought to have been heading for the White House. Two planes had crashed into the World Trade Centers in New York and they had both fallen to nothing. It was like the world had gone mad. Time seemed to stand still. When I arrived at the doctor's office in Dayton, they television was on in the waiting area. That's when I saw the images for the first time. Everyone in the room sat with their mouths gapping open in total astonishment. I felt my heart drop and my first thought was for all of the lives that had been lost that day. I thought, "I wonder if anyone that died was pregnant like me? I wonder how many are acutally dead? Who could do something like this? I wonder how many children have been left without loved ones? I wonder if anyone will be found alive?" So many questions that would take months to answer. Although I lost no one near and dear to me in the 9/11 tragedy, I still feel a loss for all of those that did. I can't imagine what this past year has been like for them and my prayers and sympathy will be continually with them. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story6914.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 209.143.34.38 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: It was my freshman year, I remember waking up extra early that morning to finish wrapping my friends birthday present, she was turning 16 that day. I had a DVD playing in the background when my mom woke up and told me to turn on the news. I didn't understand why they kept showing the same footage on every station. The situation didn't make sense to me until my first period that day at school. Walking into the building, it was like one of those silent films from the old days. It didn't belong in a high school. Then we had the morning anouncements on the TV in my math class. a group of friends and I sat watching as they explained what they could. Then it hit me, the video footage I was seeing, was the last seconds of hundreds of lives. There's just, so much that I can't describe, it's a feeling that you always remember. I think it was my generation JFK, or Marting Luther King Junior moment. But the silence was occasionally broken by sobs from my friend who had a sibling that he couldn't get a hold of. I remember in one class some kid was joking around about it. The teacher didn't say a thing when someone punched him. It's a horrible experience watching the videos, and hearing the silence broken only by anguished cries of those who are losing loved ones. I think part of humanity died that day. It had to have, for something like that to happen. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story11356.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. anonymously Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2005-03-29 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 24.237.110.151 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: At about 8:15 am CST, I dropped my nephew off at his school, and was told by one of the other moms in the school parking lot that it was all over the news that a plane had flown into a "skyscraper" in New York City. This would've been right after the first plane hit the towers. I went on to my office, about 5 minutes away, and we put the radio on. At this point, we all still thought it was some sort of freak accident. A few minutes later, when the second plane hit, we realized that this was a lot more than an accident. My boss put the TV on in her office, and we proceeded to wander back & forth from our desks to the TV all morning. Everytime some new development happened (the crash at the Pentagon, the collapse of the towers), my boss would cry out and we'd all go to the door of her office to see what was up. I remember feeling shock & disbelief. My first thought was to try to call New York, to see if my friend who lives in NYC was OK. Not being able to get thru on the phone. Contacting her family here in Chicago, and then the waiting & worrying until we knew that she wasn't involved. Everyone one in the office was numb. No one "could believe" that it was happening, even tho we saw it with our eyes on the screen. The older of our co-workers, from the Korean War generation, breaking down in tears. (They tend to be more patriotic than the "boomers" and "X-ers", and they grew up in an America that seemed invulnerable.) Sadness. Shock. Anger. A desire for vengeance. A profound feeling that, as a nation, we had been deeply violated, and would more similiar events keep happening? A dread that the next news we heard would be that a plane had crashed into the John Hancock Center in the Chicago Loop or into O'Hare Airport (a scant mile away from our building). A few days to a week later- will we go to war? Call-Ups of our friends who are in the reserves, overseas deployments of our friends & relatives & clients who are in the armed forces. The feeling that a really big war could develop, and yes, it's necessary, but will it be a bigger deal than we are really ready to deal with, and where will it all end? A year later, the dread is gone. The pride in our police and firefighters remains, as does the pride in our armed forces personnel. At least, we think the fear is gone. Until one of our suppliers calls in and offers four tickets to go see the Cubs play at Wrigley Field on Weds 9-11-2002, and no one wants to "take the chance" of going downtown, for fear that our enemies have planned some sort of anniversary stunt. Listening to the observances on the TV all day, tensely, hoping that a bulletin won't burst onto the screen about an explosion in NYC or Wash DC or Chicago. Looking at your co-workers around the lunch table, hearing someone comment that everyone seems to be in a bad mood today, and responding that "well, it's almost 1 pm, and so far no one's blown anything up", and being profoundly grateful that this is so. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story4991.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 12.100.98.227 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: The morning of 09/11/01 I had awaken very early at about 5:50am California time (8:50am N.Y.time). I turned on the news and was mortified about the news of the 1st plane crashing into the twin towers. I sat up in bed & watched the horror. As I sat with my mouth permanently agape, my daughter, who was 5 years old at the time, trodded into my room & couldn't believe I was up watching TV at that time of the morning. She asked what had happened. I explained to her the best I could in terms that a 5 year old would under-stand & that would hopefully not frighten her to much. As we sat in my bed, I held her close, we watched as the second plane hit. I had taught my daughter not to use the words "OH MY GOD", but to use "oh my gosh", well, the words "OH MY GOD" rolled off of my tongue time after time! We watched through out the morning until she went to school & I went to work. The next 4 or 5 mornings something inside of me awakened me around 5:30am (I rarely wake before 8:00am). These were cold mornings in my house. My husband had gone to work hours earlier & my daughter was still asleep. As I lay in my bed trying to somehow warm up, I realized I was sitting in a cold, dark, and lonely room. All that I could think of were the poor innocents trapped in the cold, dark and lonely mountainous rubble wishing that they had someone with them to hold them and keep them warm. All that I could do was sit and cry until my daughter woke up. I choked the tears back as to not frighten her. I live only about a mile from Travis Air Force Base. In the days following the plane crashes, when our military was called upon for duty, there would be 2 F16's at a time take off at least 4 or more times a day. The chills of pride that ran through my body were unexplainable. It was also so amazing how courtious everyone had become. I had never been so proud of my country and the way it's people had come together for each other. Now 1 year later, I still get the same feeling of dispair for the lost when I wake up before the sun and can't go back to sleep. The families of the missing and dead are in my thoughts. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1936.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-09 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 198.81.21.31 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: On the morning of September 11th, I was in my house because the night before my mom had burnt her arm cooking so, she had to go to the emergency room and I had to take of my brother. When she came back from the hospital she turned on the television and she saw when the plane hit the 1st tower, she started calling my name so I could see what was going on. When I saw all this happening I didn't know what to think at first I thought a plane flew into the tower by accident but I was still in shock. I didn't know what to feel it was all just so overwhelming and when my dad came home he said he had seen the explosion from the pentagon. I feel really sad for what happened in NY because so many innocent people went harmed and i've lived in NY for 12 yrs and for them to take a part of our city could never be justified. It was just uncalled for and too bad that we were so vulnerable at that point which made it even worse because we weren't expecting it. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story7686.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-16 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 152.163.188.195 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was at home. I had called in sick that day and I was in my basement office checking my e mail. My wife called and told me to turn on the TV. She told me that they were flying air planes into the WWTC. I got the TV on just in time to see the first building fall. I have had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for a long time. With a lot of help I had learned how to keep the symptoms under control and had lived a somewhat normal life. As the building fell all of my defenses fell with it. The symptoms suddenly all came back and have forced me to be on disabilty. Strangly my thoughts were for the fire fighters and rescue workers. I had been there doing rescue work at bad car wrecks and in the aftermath of tornados. To know only partially what they were going through seemed to intensify the effect. My heart still goes out to them, and I raise my glass to thier bravery. May those who perished rest in peace and those who survived live in peace. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1565.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-08-30 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 24.171.16.224 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: In the weeks following September 11, 2001, there seemed to be a media proliferation of new-found maturity and wisdom. Folks were writing about their own 9/11 experience, their resulting emotions, and their fine-tuned priorities. In the time that it took four planes to collide with buildings and ground, people began suddenly reflecting on big questions about what was really important in their lives and the lives of their families. In my niche, the big question was "Dare we bring kids into this dangerous new world?" I had satisfied my own drive to reproduce after five years of scheduled sex, scaling back a stressful social work career, ceasing all physical exercise save for walking my dogs, and learning how to inject myself with drugs in the thigh and abdomen twice daily during each pregnancy. Four pregnancies failed before my "miracle" child finally managed to survive my seemingly perilous womb. In my new career as a writer and online community manager for a world of infertile people, I was one of the lucky ones. I no longer had to wonder at what age I would cease the pursuit of parenthood. I'd dodged what had begun to look like an inevitable cascade of emotional struggles to adjust to an unwanted self-image: me without a child, forever. While the whole world's attention was riveted on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, I watched my two-year-old lying in a drug-induced coma in a renowned pediatric intensive care unit in Houston. Televisions over every bed replayed the horrific scenes. The looming questions for me on that day all revolved around my own child's survival, and the answer was definitive and absolute. Even if sedated to the point of breathing via respirator, he was alive and it was good. Maybe the question about whether to have babies wasn't on the minds of most people. For a few million Americans, though, the opportunity to examine one's core motives for having babies is nothing new. In fact, it becomes part of their daily life, the whole question of why anyone cares to have a baby in the first place. After the harsh realization that getting pregnant won't come easily in your own household, the costly and exhausting treatment struggle can make the most hell-bent parent-want-a-be question the value of the end point. Catastrophic events like 9/11 might understandably disrupt a person's pursuit. At least, that's what I thought. Certainly I couldn't help but wonder that day about the well-being of the thousands of people who frequented where I worked, a thriving website for people dealing with infertility. I knew for sure that one, Grace Lamoureux, worked at the Pentagon. A Technical Sergeant for the United States Air Force, Grace Lamoureux was one of my most level-headed volunteers. She and her husband, Bill, had by then done a couple of years of duty in the infertility trenches. Grace was extraordinary in her ability to provide straight-up facts with a soothing tone to the Internet community's members, mostly women, many of whom expressed anxiety-tinged desperation and even at times suicidal despondency. With her high tolerance for physical pain, she could share a different version of the diagnosis and treatment experience with needle-phobic readers. Grace was able to assure scared visitors that not only was the whole medication and procedure route to pregnancy tolerable, it was very worthwhile. She'd chosen tubal ligation to close out her reproductive life years earlier, believing that the boy and girl born from her previous marriage were enough. Then she met Bill. In these days of microsurgical techniques, divorce, and subsequent marriages, once perfectly fertile people sometimes find themselves with a medical classification of secondary infertility. For them, as for the majority of people, the notion of having children usually begins somewhere in the realm of a hazy, romantic ideal or a hormone-driven biological slip. When they change their minds down the road, their dreams of slipping easily into parenthood again are dashed: that was Grace's story. By 2001, after one tubal ligation reversal surgery, several months worth of intrauterine inseminations, and one unsuccessful go at in vitro fertilization, there was still no baby for the couple who had been long-time best friends before falling in love. Like so many double-military couples (Bill was also an Air Force Technical Sergeant), their first 10 months were spent in separate bases, in different states. When their careers allowed them to combine households in Maryland, Bill, who had no children of his own, wanted to be a dad. Already in her late 30's and, therefore, considered "advanced maternal age," Grace was prepared to go the distance to give to Bill what he called "the best gift in the world." She recalled a strong feeling of "incompleteness" without a child fathered by Bill. On September 11, 2001, the couple's personal calendar was looking forward to the month of October when they would try IVF again at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. On that day five years ago, I was struggling to cope with my own results of infertility treatment. For years, I was sure that the most painful experiences I would ever have were my several miscarriages and looming involuntary childlessness. As virtually any mother or father eventually learns, there is no separating pain from parenting. My own calendar was full of medical appointments for very different reasons. On August 1 of that year, a broken wooden garage door had come slamming down with a train's speed at the same moment that my diapered son toddled beneath it. Remarkably, the only body part injured was his right foot, but it was a devastating trauma. I witnessed the accident, and from my vantage point, I believed that my son was being crushed to death. Overnight, I learned about compression syndrome, how it rapidly devours all tissues surrounding even minor breaks for no known reasons, and how the only way to stop it is emergency surgery. By September 10, I'd learned about the prophylactic use of massive antibiotic doses, administered through a catheter installed through the chest wall, directly over the heart, around the clock for seemingly endless weeks. I'd learned how to hand my screaming baby to masked strangers who whisked him down cold, bright hallways, out of my sight yet still within hearing distance . I'd been told that my son's foot would likely never again have a normal appearance and that his ability to walk and run was uncertain without untold numbers of physical therapy sessions. The day before the planes were used to kill thousands of people in New York, D.C., and Pennsylvania, my husband and I spent a tortured 20 hours in the corridors and patios of the giant children's hospital in Houston where I'd once worked. By 2 AM on September 11, my son out of surgery four hours later than the medical team had anticipated, we were told to go home and rest while his little body was kept under heavy sedation. There was nothing we could do, the drugs made him unaware of our presence or absence, and this was our last opportunity to sleep uninterrupted for untold coming weeks. I left my child's side for the first time since his birth in 1999. Later that morning, Grace Lamoureux took her daughter to a dental appointment and headed in to her job as a videographer for the Joint Combat Camera Center in the Pentagon. She'd chosen the high-stress, deadline-driven job primarily in order to remain in Maryland with Bill, who was working in D.C., too. She also thought it would be "cool" to work in the thick of things, editing footage sent in by various military bases and producing viewable material for television networks. Her new office was windowless and temporarily disheveled as the building was being renovated. Having spent the morning on the Metro sans radio or phone service, neither Grace nor her colleagues knew the reason that there were more security guards outside than usual at 9 AM. The weather was incredibly nice. They must be taking advantage, she thought. Before she could drop her backpack and head downstairs to count and label furniture that was due to be moved, Bill called. He was watching the morning's events unfold with the rest of the country on live TV. Ironically, the Pentagon videography team was still without cable in their new office, so they relied on Bill's worrisome report by phone to hear the news that now a second plane had torn into the World Trade Center. About 15 minutes later, Grace wondered aloud to co-workers how horrible it would be for a plane to aim for the Pentagon, especially given their new office location on the outer ring's top floor, 300 yards from a heliport where dignitaries were believed to arrive. Twenty or so minutes after that, a loud but muffled sound from below shook the building with a force that up-ended computer monitors. A standing office mate lost his balance as the floor rocked. They hoped it was a downstairs wall being collapsed for renovation purposes. The calls for evacuation began. As Grace and her team descended by stair and escalator, still not fully understanding the situation, they encountered and assisted hysterical but uninjured civilian workers. As their journey progressed, it became apparent that an explosion of some kind had occurred a few floors beneath the videography office, in the area where Grace should have been labeling furniture. They gathered in the parking lot and immediately began working on a plan to get to another venue for work purposes, knowing that footage would likely be streaming in for editing. With communication and transportation disrupted, it was two hours before Bill again reached Grace by phone. In Houston, watching the TV in my bedroom as I dressed for a day at the hospital, I felt an undeniable wave of panic as my mind raced. At that moment, not knowing whether this was just the first of a possible series of attacks on our country's locales of great importance, my heart rose to my throat as my son lay unconscious in the medical center of a city built by petroleum-based money. My overwrought body couldn't move fast enough to calm my terrified mind. Nothing seemed normal -- the traffic, the looks on strangers' faces, the amount of security we met at the hospital, the droning TV screens everywhere. Still, once at my son's bedside, I had no big questions. Scared out of our wits or not, my child was here, and he was alive. Eventually, the need to escape the breathing machine's rhythmic hissing sent me to the hospital's courtesy computers. I logged on, headed for my community, and started scanning threads for news of members' welfare, especially Grace. I was frankly dismayed that there were so many posts that seemed oblivious to the morning's horrors. It wasn't that they were in a fog and unaware, it was that their own needs were so much more pressing and urgent. Women in various stages of worry about why they couldn't conceive, or which treatment might work, or when they needed to start the additional fertility medications... and I couldn't find Grace. Questioning the voracity with which someone flings herself into fertility treatment is unthinkable in groups such as our community. Rarely, if ever, were the big questions of whether and why brought to bear in these forums. On the rare occasions that such a renegade post appeared, the foolhardy poster was swiftly deemed an outsider and effectively banished by group derision. The mind-set was something along the lines of "Who would dare question our motives for wanting children?", followed by frequent complaints about the "unfairness" of infertility. After four years creating and building the infertility website, I had decided to focus mostly on writing articles, culling together a team of 12 volunteers to manage the large community precisely because I had fallen out of love with the "infertility victim" routine. I let my sympathetic team work their magic to keep the community emotionally and intellectually fed, while I managed the mundane yet tolerable administration aspects. It was painful to see, on the evening of September 11, 2001, the same sort of clamoring for backpats and attention that went on any other day in my infertility community. I wondered if I was over-reacting, emotions springing from my own circumstances which weren't even based on the day's events that were most significant to the world. I judged it better to avoid all conversations, post a message of consolation for anyone who was impacted, and put out a call for knowledge of Grace. Finally, word trickled through that Grace was okay. Eventually, I corresponded with her and learned of her impending second IVF. I posted a poll on the site asking readers to rate how much, if at all, their desire to bring forth children into this new world had changed. Grace consented to writing up her own thoughts on the question, and I published it with the poll results 13 days later. It was not a scientific survey, but it was a good gauge of my site's membership. The question: "Has the recent terrorist attack changed your feelings toward having children?" Thirty-one percent responded positively to the statement "There is nothing that could ever change my mind." There was a smattering of responses to less confident stances but, in all, 55 percent had mostly positive feelings about having children. Only two percent said that the events had "definitely" changed their minds in a negative direction. Grace's point of view essay is still frequently viewed, though on a different website. It is as candid as Grace, as reasonable and sober as her helpful posts to the community, as pragmatic as her approach to everyday life seems. She factored in all costs involved, from financial to social to emotional. She examined their emotions toward a future far more uncertain for active military than for anyone else. She and Bill did their best to avoid related conversations with their families, fearing they might hear only negatives from those who could not or would not understand. They compartmentalized their experiences, separating job from home, focused on the fact that they still got to come home to each other and their other children. Written just days after surviving the Pentagon attack, Grace explained that, in the end, they would still go through with their IVF. Today, she says she barely recalls writing it. Bill and Grace's twin sons are now four years old. Since 2005, the family has lived near Fairbanks, Alaska where Grace is stationed at Eielson Air Force Base. Just as Grace referred in her 2001 essay to the possibility of the country requiring more of both her and Bill, she was deployed to Iraq for four and a half months this year. There, she met a woman who already knew her name from having tearfully read the essay online, after searching for support and information about her own combined situations of being active military and wanting to have children. The big questions are still very much out there, maybe even more so now, as advanced reproductive technology has boomed in just the past five years, offering myriad genetic choice to parents who can afford to be choosy. Now, it's not just a matter of why one wants a child and to what extremes would one go, but picky parents can choose a gender and screen for even the simple likelihood of many genetic conditions. My son is fine now, a healthy, active, normal seven year old. More often than I'd like, I have found myself thinking of those fearful nights and days in that hospital, sick with worry and, frankly, wondering if I had done the right thing bringing this child into the world. At that time, I had to wonder about Grace and why she felt compelled to go forward with fertility treatment in order to bring another child into this dangerous world. When I spoke to Grace earlier this week, she made it clear that there was nothing she would do differently, even given the anxiety and heartache involved in being an active military mom of young children. As we talked about the many visitors to the online community who seemed so driven to distraction by the infertility experience that they lost track of the goal to parent, Grace summed up with the hindsight of a survivor, both of 9/11 and now Iraq, her own answer to the question. We were thinking how cool it would be to put the best of both of us into a baby, she recalls. We're going to raise them to be great people. With the way the world is going, maybe this little soul can grow up and make some changes. In addition to my burdensome wealth of medical knowledge gained through infertility and, then, the other shoe falling of the garage door accident, I have learned and accepted that I will never be the same after witnessing what I believed for only a few seconds to be my son's dying. Similarly, no one who witnessed the horrors of 9/11 can ever return to their previous version of whatever was normal. Finally, I realize that expecting the immediate and cataclysmic trauma of that day to have much bearing at all on the drive to have children, especially for people who must fight to continue believing that they can, makes as much sense as asking me whether I'd do it all over again if I had known the accident lie in our future. They are questions without answers. ### Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story20595.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2006-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 68.92.204.26 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I awoke the morning of September 11, 2001 about 9am to get myself motivated for a business luncheon that was scheduled at 11am. I turned on the television with the intention of checking the weather channel since the local weather can be very unpredictable this time of year. The TV was tuned to either CNN (or MSNBC)and the first image I saw was an airplane hitting one of the towers. I couldn't move. All I could do was stare, in disbelief, of what I was witnessing. I am originally from New York. I grew up less than an hour's drive north of Manhattan in an area which lends itself to a fairly easy commute. When the reality of the situation finally overcame the initial shock, I began to think of family members and friends that were either working in the World Trade Center or working as Rescue workers(ie: police, fire or ambulance). My first cousin was working for a bank in the WTC at the time. She, by the Grace of God, was running late for work that day and was still on the subway when the first plane hit. I'm sorry to say I did lose a high school friend. She left behind a husband and 3 children. There is NOT a single soul in this nation that has not been touched by the atrocities of September 11, 2001. I know, we as a nation, will never forget. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story6016.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 152.163.188.6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: Well, September 11th, 2001.. i was a 7th grader and it was picture day... this is when i still dressed up... i had gone to 2 classes already.. during the 3rd class we got our pictures taken..suddenly the teachers all gathered around in the back of the auditorium and i sensed that something was wrong... since we were in middle school i guess they didnt want to tell us what was going on.. I got home later that day and as soon as i walked in the house and my grandmother told me "take off your shoes and your stockings... and sit and watch the television... this is what happened today... and the rest was history... My uncle was supposed to be there that day.. thank god that his meeting got cancled.. he was supposed to be in the windows of the world meeting on the 106th floor... im thankful that he is still alive.. that was the day that i changed my outlook on life. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story20354.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2006-09-09 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 64.252.130.216 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: Hi. I am 16 years old but when this happen i was a freshmen in high school. the day started out great it was my english teachers birthday she went down to the office to get flowers form her future husband but then she came back in with a confuse look on her face.... she was like a plane crashed into the world trade center. we all thought she was joking but she wasnt. at that time i didnt exactly know what building was wtc i thought the twin towers and wtc were tow completely different buildings. In 1999 i went to nyc with my class i took this beatuiful picture of a america flag at the statue of liberty cuz i thought it was so beatuful. when i look back at the pic on that tragic day i notice something in every pic of that america flag i took a pic of there was the twin towers in the background. it jsut made me cry. back to where i was. so i go on to 3rd period.... thats when it really hit it. my physical science teacher was crying like i have never seen anyone cry before. she turned the radio on thats when it really hit me hard. then 4th period came around and my amth teacher refuse to talk about it then my science teacher 4 th period class came into my class because she couldnt stop crying. so we all stay in 4th period until lunch. all day i was like whats going on they wouldnt let us wathc the tv. then once school was over i had volleyball practice. then my mom picked me up and we went to go get water and etc. thats when i saw pics of what happen. i never got real congrage to actually look at the pics of poeple jumping out of windows. and still to this day i have not seen all the pics of waht happen that day. i dont know if i will ever have the courage. Everytime i hear enya only time i get cchills. but i have become more patrotic than ever. hopefully when i start a family in the future my kids we never have to go thru what i day that day. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story10425.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2004-02-07 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 66.61.68.231