story5118.xml

story5118.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I woke up that morning, and turned on the tv to watch the news as I prepared for work. I didn't normally do that, but that day something told me to do it. As I sat on the couch to put on my shoes, I saw an image of the World Trade Center on fire with a huge gaping hole in it, and the first thing that popped into my mind was my mother.

You see, I "am" a native New Yorker, I was born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx, only about 30 minutes north of the WTC. I worked on 25th street, about 10 minutes from the WTC for years, I rode the PATH train into the city from New Jersey when I resided there (the PATH train's main station was in the basement of the WTC. My entire family lives in New York even til this day. I had just moved to Winter Park, FL 1 year and 13 days prior. I had left New York at the time with the purpose of living a calmer, laid back life, in a nurturing and natural environment. I had worked in the Recording Industry for years, and was fed up with the hustle and bustle of New York, the negativity, the poluution, the pan handlers, and the drama......

But on September 11th, I wanted to defend my home town more than anything you can imagine....

My mother loved shopping near the WTC, there are many bargain stores near there, and Lord knows Mami's a bargain hunter...

When I first saw the image on tv, at first I thought, "how are they gonna put that fire out?", and I left it at that and went to work. When I arrived at the office, my entire department was in the conference room watching it Live on the television, and then it happened, one of the towers fell.....that's when it hit me....

I dialed my mothers number, but could not get through, for what seemed like endless minutes, I dialed my brother and he informed me everyone was fine, at home, and he was on the way to pick up my niece and nephew from school. I still tried calling my mother and when I finally got through, I felt such a relief! Even though my brother had informed me she was okay, I still wanted to hear her voice, you know?

We cried, and cried on the phone and I was so thankful to have my mother and my entire family safe from harm, but we were still devastated....our city was under attack!

I was afraid for my family still, I didn't know what would happen next...what if they bombed the city throughout?

Then to top it off, my best friends fiance worked in one of the Towers on the 4th floor, and she hadn't heard from him......luckily he was late for work.....he arrived at her job 4 hours later in a state of shock.

Needless to say, I spent the night on the phone with mom, just clinging to her voice, making sure she was okay every minute of the day.

We all left work, everyone went home, stopping on the way at the bank and the grocery store to stock up on food, I couldn't believe this was happening.....

A few days later, a flight leaving from JFK to the Dominican Republic, crashed just a few minutes after take off......my 4 -year old cousin was traveling with his mother (my cousins wife), my cousin is now in heaven.

I felt like everyone in the world in some way shape or form, was meant to feel some type of loss during those days,

That's where I was on September 11th