story3395.xml

story3395.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was in the air on September 11th, returning from a climbing trip to Alaska. I had been scheduled to return home the day before but my flight out of Newark was cancelled due to bad weather. Since remaining in Newark overnight would have meant that I got home late the following day, I jumped on a flight to Charlotte. There was a flight to Memphis early the next morning (the 11th).

When I got home the next day, my phone started ringing as I walked in the door. A friend of mine was calling to see if I had made it home. I had no idea what was going on. He told me to turn on the TV and I sat there in shock and disbelief staring at the incredible scene on the screen. At that point, no-one was yet sure what had happened and I thought that it must have been some terrible accident. Of course this was not the case and that quicklt became apparent.

I sat on the edge of my bed for hours, crying as I watched the events unfold on my bedroom TV. My luggage sat in the middle of the kitchen where I had dropped it, I didn't even take off my shoes. There were reports that a few planes still in the air were not responding and I was scared. I was also dazed, having been up for almost 48 hours before getting a 3 hour nap in Charlotte. I needed to go to sleep, but I couldn't. I was terrified, wondering what would happen next . . . where we going to be bombed, where there missiles coming toward us? It was an endless day that passed in a slow, dark haze like a nightmare and I will never forget it, or the people who lost their lives, or the heroes who risked everything to try to save them.