story5248.xml

story5248.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was at my children's school in the conference room helping out with the PTA fund raiser, when several office personel ran in and yell turn on the TV, a plane hit one of the Twin Towers in NY!!! We all seemed frozen as we watched the news unfold. As several parents were also there helping with the fund raiser, the prinicpal asked our input on how do we tell the children? By this time the other tower had been hit as well as Washington. I knew my kids were safe at this point and worried more about my husband who was working at the Orlando Int'l Airport with FBI clearance. I called him to find out that he was in an closed door meeting, they were trying to figure what they should do next. I will also tell you that Sept 11, 2001, was our 14th wedding annv. Needless to say, all dinner plans were cancelled. Less than 5 mins after our first phone call, I received a call from my husband to inform me that there has been a bomb threat at the airport and he just didn't want me to see it on the news first. At this point we started to have parents arriving to take thier children home from school early. I spent the next 2 hours helping release about 500 kids out of 900. I was very proud of our parents, they were calm and orderly. Once the day was over I was able to go home with my children 4 & 7, I had to explain about the day as well as explain daddy will be working late. Once I got them settled, it was my turn to fall apart!!! I went in the shower so my children could not hear me and cried uncontrollably, not only for my husband, whom I was scared for, but for the people that were hurt or died and thier families. Once I got myself together I sat with my children as we prayed to keep daddy safe as well as the families of the ones lost. I got my children to bed and just watched tv as I waited for my husband to come home safe. He did arrive home safe, about 2am the next day, but was on call. Needless to say we did not get much sleep that night like most people in America. We just layed in bed, with our boys beside us, and clung to each other, scared to let go. I will never look at life or my family the same again, as well as my husband and I decided then to change the day we celebrate our anniversary.