story6592.xml

story6592.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

Yesterday was the September 11, 2002. I still remeber that day like it was yesterday. I remeber where I was and what I was doing when I found out. I had to go into work late that day becasue my daughter had a dr's appointment.
My daughter was watching catoons and I was in the bathroom geting ready for the day. The phone was ringing and the caller had hung up by the time I got there. I checked the messages and it was my mom on the phone. She was crying. She said that the pentagon had been bombed and the our country was under attack. At that time we didn't really know that an airplane had hit it.
I hung up the phone and ran to the t.v. When I turned it on I saw the world trade center. The reporter said that an airplane had crashed into it. I got scared I didn't know what was going to happen next. I sat there and watched in shock. As I sat there and watched the 2nd plane crashed into the other tower. I started to cry and my daughter asked me what was wrong. I explained to her that 2 airplanes crashed into the buildings on T.V. I didn't go into to much detail w/ her @ that time, I guess becasue I was kind of in shock.
We sat there and watched the T.V. until it was time to leave for the Dr.
When we got to the Dr's office the T.V.'s were on and everyone was standing there staring. It was almost like you couldn't look away. I think people were so shocked . It was like it wasn't real.
I went and dropped off my daughter @ school. I went to work. At the time I was working @ The Embassy Suites Hotel in Brookfield WI. I walked into work and walk to my office and turned on the radio and tried to carry on with business as usual as much as possible. I worked as a sales/catering assistant. I became flooded w/ calls from clients canceling there events becasue all flights were cxled and no one could get to us. We even had 1 event scheduled for Morgan Stanley who's main office occupied a floor in the world trade center. We spoke to the cooridinator of the event who told us that so far they had not accounted for everyone but their office was on a lower floor.
After that call I had some thing s to take up to the front desk. I walk with my hands full of papers and such and headed for the front. There was a crowd of people at the elevator wich there usally is. I paid no attention and walk through concentrating on not dropping all my papers and I ran right into someone. Looked up and there stood George & Barbara Bush.I was shocked. The look on my face probally told them that. All I saw was Mr. & Mrs. Bush smiling and the secert service guys laughing at me. I managed to say escuse me sir. Then I walked away wondering why George & Barbara Bush are standing in my lobby.
I later found out that they had been in the air and had to land and Milwaukee was the nearset place to land. I think they ended up @ Emabassy because we had the seceret service at the hotel before when the President was in town.
What amazed me was how come the both of them were. They sat in the restaurant and had lunch, walked through the hotel taking pictures w/ people. I think I would have been in a little more of a panic w/ what was going on.
I think one of the hardest parts about this whole thing was explaing to my 5 year old daughter what happened. It was hard to explain to her why people would do that. She didn't understand why someone was so mad at us. No matter how I explained so a 5 year old would understand it, it just didn't make sense to her. I tried to keep what she saw on t.v. to a minimum but she was still scared. She would ask me if we caught the bad guys. I would try to assure her that the bad guys were not going to hurt us and her answer was how do you know. The truth was I didn't know.
It was a horrible thing that happened to our counrty but I am a firm believer in what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. I think in this case it applies to our country.
God Bless America!!!