story11273.xml

story11273.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2005-01-27

I had spent the night at my boy friends house. I always slept in, but he woke me up early and told me to turn on the tv. I couldnt believe what I saw. I thought at first that it was just a movie, but it wasn't. I guess it hadnt hit me yet while he was driving me to school. Then on the radio it told of a plane that had crashed in Penn. that was flying out of Newark, N.J. It was then that I realized my dad was supposed to be flying from Newark that day. I started balling my eyes out. My boy friend rushed me to my dorm, parked illegally and practically carried me to my 6th floor dorm room. I couldnt even think straight, so many things came to my mind...could that have been my dad's plane. I walked into my room and my roommate and her boy friend were there. I told them about my dad and the plane. She gave me a phone card to call my mom in West Palm. Amazingly I got through on the first try. I couldnt even ask her if my dad was ok or if she had heard anything, I just cried and blurted out "dad". She calmed me down and told me that she had heard from him and that he was at my grandparents house in New Jersey. His flight had been cancelled, obviously. He had a friend that owned a rental car place, he was going to pick up a car and drive down some back roads to Florida as soon as he was able to. She said she would have him call me when he got home. About a week later I was sitting at my desk working on some homework for an anthropology class and the phone rings. It was my dad! I have never been so relieved to hear his voice, I just cried and told him I loved him. For a few moments I shared the feeling with so other Americans of the uncertainty of not knowing what had happend to a loved one. It's scary, knowing that they might be gone, and you didnt get a chance to say good bye. I was lucky, my dad was ok. But there are too many people out there that were not as lucky as me...my heart and prayers go out to all of them.