story6310.xml

story6310.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I was sitting in my office working when one of my coworkers came running down the hall saying that two planes had collided in mid air. I thought, Oh how horrible. But being as this type of accident had occurred in the past, I could accept that it happened, even though it was still very startling to hear that news. A few moments later my phone rang and my older sister who was home, was crying and told me "Peg, a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center in N.Y. I was horrified to know that, but at that time, it still was not realized by America that it was an
intentional act of terror. We stayed on the phone and everything just started to go totally haywire with special news reports coming across T.V. and radio. We were both very scared and crying and when we heard about the plane hitting the Pentagon, we really freaked out. I remember Bryant Gumbel, saying, "Oh my God, Oh my God", it is being reported that a plane has just crashed into the Pentagon.
At that point we were both crying hysterically and my older sisters words, were, We are at war. We both were so scared, we just did not know what to do. No doubt the rest of that day at work was very unproductive and resulted in many, many tears falling for all the lost lives and just seeing the reports on t.v. showing the planes hitting the buildings and then watching those beautiful towers crashing to the ground. It was too much to bear. So I cannot even imagine the horror of witnessing it in person. The people who did have to see it will be scarred for life with those horrible memories.
I know our lives will never be the same in America ever again. A lot of innocence and trust was lost that day, and many hearts were broken as well.