story1379.xml

story1379.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-21

I took my daughter to the Oral Surgeon that morning to have her Wisdom Tooth removed. She was in with the dentist and I was in the waiting room. There was one other woman sitting in the waiting area. We were sitting very quiet, each reading a magazine. The radio was on. When they said a plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York, we both looked up at each other and started saying how awful that was, and the poor people in the building and in the planes. Of course, like the rest of the world, we thought it was an accident, then one of the dental assistant's yelled that another plane went into the other building. We all got very scared at that point because obviously, like everyone else we had figured we were under attack. I don't think I have every been that scared in my life.

At this point the dentist came out and told me my daughter was in the recovery room. Everyone that worked there was trying to concentrate on their work, but when news came that the Pentagon had been hit, everyone went a little crazy. They were running back and forth talking to the dentists, talking to the patients, the phones started ringing. During all this, my daughter was laying in the recovery room not quite knowing what was going on. I remember pacing back and forth from the hall to the recovery room saying "Oh my God, we are under attack." I must have said it 20 times. I just wanted to take my daughter and go home. The nurse finally came in and told us she could go.

We drove home to Malden, a city just north of Boston, and immediately turned on the television. At that point, they were replaying the planes going into the tower, my sister called me and said they had both collapsed, I said "No they didn't, I'm looking at them right now on television," she then said wait and they will show it, when they did, I was in shock like everyone else and I just started crying and praying for all the people and their families. I remember thinking that there were people out there watching this and their loved one(s) was on one of those planes or in one of those buildings. I can't begin to imagine what they went through.

I wanted to stay home an watch more, but I had to go to work. When I got there everyone was gathered around the radio listening. Needless to say, nothing got done that day. We were shocked to learn that two of the planes had come from Logan. I remember someone saying, I wonder if we know anyone on those planes. It turned out some co-workers did know some people. One co-workers neighbor got a phone call later that day from her neice, she was screaming, "I have no parents, I have no parents". Both of her parents were on one of the planes. We found another co-worker outside crying the next day, one of her good friends was on one of the planes.

I remember my mother talking about Pearl Harbor and I thought how scary that day must have been for everyone. I guess we all know what it was like back then. None of us will ever forget that horrible act the cowards committed that day.

My thoughts and prayers are with everyone that was directly impacted by this. I have read some of the stories of people that were in the area or in the buildings and I can't get them out of my mind. New Yorkers are strong people to be able to carry on so soon after this tragedy.

God Bless Everyone and God Bless America