story9016.xml

story9016.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-02-01

It was September 10th, 2001, 10:00 pm in Virginia. The kids had just gone to bed getting ready for a busy day at highschool. 11:00 rolled around the children were asleep. My heart started to race, I went into the worst panic attack I had ever had! It was awful, I was petrified, and began pacing the floors, As each hour went by, my panic became stronger and stronger, I was uncontrollably crying. I paced every inch of floor in the house all night long over and over. I was really confused because there was nothing wrong, nothing that I knew of...
By 7:00 I had woke the children up a few times with my pacing and crying. I had the most awful feeling, and cried when they left to go to school. I had worn myself out pacing and crying all night long, so I layed in bed with the tv on, and began dozing off. Suddenly I awoke, and sat straight up in my bed just to see a plane on the tv crashing into the first tower. I shook my head in hopes I'd wake up and had just had a bad dream. But the news just kept coming. The panic attack that started September 10, 2001 at 11:00 pm instantly became a reality. The world as we knew it was coming to an end. Yet I suddenly became calm, kindof somber, and I turned the tv up so I could hear it all through the house. I began filling water juggs, and gathering candles, blanket, necessity. Then I called the school, checking on the kids, wanting my children at home with me instantly. Ofcourse the school denied all the parents request to send the children home, due to security reasons. So i spent the rest of the day watching the news, calling up home to Washington Dc, where my brother and friends were Firefighters and Paramedics, and police officers. Calling up to New York and New Jersey where my family lived and worked. I had people in both places spread all over. Not being able to reach many people, I finally just dropped to my knees and started praying. Praying for everyone I loved and all the ones I didn't know, Praying that the children would soon get home from school early. All I wanted was to hold them. Finally they arrived home, I think my son 14 at the time thought I would never let go of him. They looked around the house and asked what I had been doing. I wasn't quite sure myself, but I was preparing for something. We talked about all the "What if's" and I knew then the world I had grown up in, the world I was raising my children in as we knew it, was gone forever. A feeling of security we once had, we would never know again.
Since then I have used September 11, as a reminder everyday, of the things that are truly important in life, and not just the people that are important to me, but what kind of people we are. We are strong, decent, and bonded together as a nation of survivors. Not one day do my kids leave the house without me telling them I love them. Not a week goes by I don't sit with my son, and talk about his life, and the choices he makes. I constantly remind him, that with love, compassion, and honor, We are the strongest people. That the evil that devasted our nation and the world, that day came from people who were cowards and weak. I am constantly posting things in my computer groups monthly, in memory of September 11, 2001, just as a reminder to those who get caught up in the drama of everyday life, that we need to remember, we need to learn, we need to be the decent people who are strong enough to survive.