story6491.xml

story6491.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I was awoken by the ringing of the telephone. My first thought was who was calling at 5:45 in the morning, my second was who died. It was my mother in law calling us to turn-on the tv. I woke my husband up and told him to turn to CNN. We watched as they started talking about the horrible accident of a plane flying into the tower. All of a sudden we watched as another jet flew straight into the second tower. We sat in shock, not believing what we had just seen on tv. That stuff is special effects for a movie not something someone would actually consider doing to other people.

After the second plane, my first thought was to call my mother who lives in Brooklyn. She wasn't home, and I was getting very nervous. She was supposed to start a new job that day and I had no idea where. We sat and watch the images for a while. It was one of those things that was so horrible, but you couldn't stop watching. As the first tower was collapsing my oldest son woke up. He was only 4 and I didn't want him to see the destruction that had occured, so I made my husband turn the tv off, and started my day. I still hadn't been able to reach my mother. After dropping my son off at preschool, and being assured by the teachers that nothing would be mentioned to the kids I drove home to try my mom yet again. I finally got through and she was home. She had gone out to run errands that morning and vote in the primary before work. Of course by the time she had gotten to where she was going everything had happened and she didn't know. So I had to tell her.

The rest of the day flew. I kept the tv off so my kids wouldn't see it. They wouldn't understand, and I couldn't watch it again. I realized later that I was in denial, because after growing up in the city there was sure to be somebody I knew that was now missing. Later that night we got a call from a friend of ours whose brother is an EMT for the city. He couldn't get a hold of his brother and knew he was at the scene somewhere. Luckily the next day he was found to be at one of the triage areas assigne dto help found victims.

I was walking around in a dream state. Trying to act normal so my kids wouldn't have know of the tradegy, but grieving for everybody who was gone, and those that were left behind. I didn't cry until that Friday morning when on the car radio a firefighter from CA was talking about hearing all the PAS alarms on the trapped firefighters going off. If you listened closely on the tv you could hear them. They sounded like car alarms but were to frequent and too many to be alarms. Once I heard for myself I knew nobody was going to be found alive that all of those lives were gone, and wasted by somebody who could of cared less about what people are worth.

Every day I hug my kids a little tigher than I did before. My husband I try to make sure that we always say a kind word to each othre before bed and before he goes to work, because unfortunately you never know.