story6208.xml

story6208.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I was at home with my wife and new, six day old daughter, Hanna Mary. The morning of September 11th I had gotten out of bed to get our daughter and bring her into the bedroom so my wife could nurse her. I changed her diaper, and was disposing of it in a wonderful invention called a diaper genie. Well, the diaper genie was full for the first time and I didn't know how to empty it. I called our next door neighbor who has a daughter 3 months older than Hanna Mary. She told me what to do, and asked if we were watching the news. Apparently, something was going on in New York with the World Trade Center. I emptied the diaper genie, and returned to the bedroom with my wife, Kristy, and our daughter. I flipped on the TV and we sat there and watched the World Trade Center burning. Soon after we had turned on the news, the second plane exploded into the second tower. Such a range of emotions overcame us - we were as happy as we'd ever been, but we were so torn by what we were watching unfold. It was hard to beleive that such things could happen in this world, in our country, and right in front of our eyes. My daughter napped on my chest while, as far as my wife and I knew, people were dying. It was the most heart-wrenching feeling. I was so glad I was home with my family. September 12th was my first day to go back to work, but I can't imagine how I would have felt if I had not been there.

All in the matter of a few hours, I had experienced so many emotions: happiness, shock, disbelief, anger, sadness. All I could think about was my daughter lying there in the bed next to my wife and I, and think that the next day after such unbeleivable events, that I had to leave them. September 11th was hard, but the day after for me was even harder.