story6665.xml

story6665.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I remember it was such a beautiful day - that was the irony of it. The weather was perfect. Being the mother of a two year old at the time the only thing on TV was Clifford on PBS and I remember the phone ringing and it was my neighbor Steph. She was very upset on the phone saying to me, "Can you belieive this is happening?" I told her I had no idea what she was talking about and she told me the World Trade Center Towers had both been hit by planes and were on fire. I ran to my bedroom and turned off Clifford and put on the news and sat on the edge of my bed with my mouth totally open. My daughter came into the room and had a melt down because Clifford was turned off and I picked her up and deposited her into her room and shut the door. I couldn't deal with her then. I was horrified as the towers fell and couldn't believe that I was watching it live on tv as it unfolded only 200 miles from my safe bedroom. The rest of the day I spent in a fog walking around the house from room to room saying out loud, "I just can't believe this is happening" and bursting out in tears at the thought of the thousands of people who had just lost their lives - it was overwhelming. I tried to make a nice dinner and insisted the tv was turned off as we ate, but it didn't help. My husband & I took our daughter to a playground at a local school and we watched her on the swings and slide with no clue of what had happened. My husband made the comment he was so glad Taylor was too young to know what happened. As we were walking back to the car we noticed the church accross the street had their front doors wide open. Later that night I fished the flag out of the basement and we hung it up outside with a spotlight on it. It was the longest day of my life it seems.