story2695.xml

story2695.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

My husband and I were painting our home that summer. We were home outside painting from the early morning. Because I work in an office that has constant phone, faxing and paging, I was enjoying working outside without any radio or other sound. Around 11:00, I went inside to take a break and put on Home and Garden Television. There was a message on the screen that said, "Because of Today's Tragic Events Regular Programming Is Preempted." I then turned to the local TV channels to find out what the Tragic Events were. I remember watching shots of billowing clouds of dust and mounds of rubble. I kept watching thinking what is this that I am seeing. I ketp thinking it was some movie or game that I was seeing. Finally, I comprehended that the USA had been attacked and quite probably thousands of people were dead in the collapsed Towers. I called to my husband that he had to come in. That we were under attack. We sat and watched TV, glued to the horror of the Twin Towers. Some time later, I called my work place to find out if we had lost anyone on the planes out of Logan Airport, Boston. I spoke with my best friend and coworker of 24 years. He told me that not only were the Towers gone, but the Pentagon had been attacked. All the time we had been watching TV, the focus was on NYC. I was stunned at the news of the Pentagon. Later, I found out about the plane in Pennsylvania. During the phone conversation with my friend, I was also informed that my company had chosen that day to lay off numerous people. The terminations were started prior to the attacks and the company believed it best to continue. My heart went out to my fellow colleagues. I was home with my family, safe and sound. They were in work, listening to radio reports of the worst disaster that any had lived through, and on top of that they feared they too would be called in and informed that they no longer had a job.

Certain days I will always remember. My first day at school,the day President Kennedy was shot, the birth of my son and the day innocent people were attacked as they went about their every day lives.