story5167.xml

story5167.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

On that morning, I was at home getting ready to take my husband his snadwiches that I was making for him everyday. My young baby at the time was only 7 months old, and my other two children were in school. My oldest son Parker was in the fourth grade, and my daughter Chessa was in second. I called my husband to see if he was there for me to drop off his lunch, only to get the most horrible information of my life. Someone who worked for my husband told me that a plane just flew into one of the twin towers and that it may have looked like an accident until the other plane hit, and then it was a terrorist act. I had to sit for a moment and wonder why. I turned on the television to get more information, and then that is when I heard the news that a plane flew into the Pentagon. I called My mother in Upstate New York to see if she heard any of this, and she hadn't. She turned on the television to find out that a plane carrying more people went down in Pennsylvania. I couldn't grasp what was going on. On the way to my husbands job, I'm thinking, My chidren, I have to get my children. I wanted to call the school first to see if they were releasing at that time, they weren't, but parents were thinking like me, we wanted to have our children with us, so it's what I did.
My childrens school is right down the street from Andrews Air force Base, and I'm imagining the chaos, my images were right, very chaotic at a point. People were everywhere, cars were everywhere. It was like something out of a bad B-Flick movie where you just can't figure anything out. I got my children out with know problem and on our way with tons of questions to answer, I think I did a good job of answering, of course they were somewhat informed in school, but you know children always have more questions on top of questions and that leaves us scrambling for words sometimes.
I will never forget the phone call that I got from a very worried person from California. A man called my number by mistake trying to get a hold of his friend that he said worked at the Pentagon and lived near by where I do, sounding so upset wondering what was going on. I told him everything that I knew and maybe even more that I could think of at the time to calm him down. I think I did a good job of that also because he got in touch with his friend and found out that she was alright and didn't go to work that day. I know this because he called me back to let me know and to thank me for informing him and talking to him about everything he needed. I watched, as every other person did that day and every second wondered why as I said before. I watched every tear that day and shed my own later that evening. I thought of all the people that lost their lives that morning and all the families that lost someone they loved and thank God that I had mine. That day will be a strong memory for the rest of my life, as it will be for everyone. I watched for a very long time on this September 11th day of 2002 all the anniversaries that were shared and had so many thoughts of my own. I just want to say, that we should keep on giving and keep on loving for as long as there is love to give. Thank you for letting me share my thoughts with you.

Robin