story9598.xml

story9598.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-09-11

On Sptember 10th myself and my fiance were moving into our first apartment.. So as we were opening boxes I got a call that my stepdad had a stroke and only had a 25% chance of living. SO I work for AMEX Travel and I booked everyone in my family on a flight to OH where he is for the next morning. So I am sitting in my living room waiting to get ready to leave watching the today show like I always do and I watched the entire thing take place.. Could it not be the worst feeling in my life. My brother and his family were due to fly one of the AA flights but things were going so wrong in the ariport that they for some reason didn't get on the plane.. THANK god but anyway we ended up driving 16 hours to OH and being with my mom but it was the worst 16 hours of my life.. There was 0 people on the road and when we did stop everyone was crying, it was just awful.. on our way home from this tragic experience we did the stop on the Washington Bridge and lit a candle at 7pm and just said a prayer with everyone in the country and I have never felt more at home and more loved than anything.. The whole country was one and it felt awesome to live here and be AMERICAN...... It sucked but it was great to feel the pain and let everyone know that we loved them no matter who they were!!! Today is 9/10/03 and it has been 2 yrs to the day my stepdad had the stroke and he died last Saturday on 9/6.. So from now on everything I do is for him.. WE LOVE YOU FRANK!!!!!!