story4569.xml

story4569.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was at work doing some light cleaning when a co-worker came in and said a plane had just hit the World Trade Center in New York. I instantly thought of it as an accident. I turned on the radio and moments later, the announcer was screaming that another plane just hit the other tower. They were immediately talking of terrorism, but I was trying to figure out the odds of two plane accidents at the World Trade Center in one day. It wasn't long before I accepted the fact that it was an act of terrorism. My co-worker had gone into a massage appointment with a client. I sat by the radio and took notes the whole hour. I was in shock, but took notes as the plane crashed into the Pentagon and as the plane crashed in Pennsylvania. I wanted to go home and be with my family. I wanted my husband, my children, my parents and brothers and sisters. I wanted us all to just huddle and hold each other. No daily things seemed important anymore. Everything I ever worried about or spent time pouring over seemed very, very small. The full impact still has not completely hit me. I felt then and still feel a giant, empty hole inside of me. I feel extreme anger that these terrorists took away my freedom as I once knew it. I felt the pain of taking my "very cool" seventeen year old son to a church service and comforting him as he cried uncontrollably the whole time. He said to me "Mom, my whole life I have lived inside a bubble of safety and today that bubble has burst." It was all in a matter of minutes... we lost our lives as we knew it. GOD BLESS AMERICA and GOD BLESS EVERYONE WHO FEELS THE PAIN.