story7312.xml

story7312.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-14

I woke up that morning as I did every morning with my 8 month old daughter. We ate breakfast and sat down to watch her favorite childrens television program. When I turned on the television I was astonished to see what I saw. It was a live shot of the World Trade Center, and they were both on fire. I sat in complete awe while my daughter played at my feet. I watched as the first building fell, and a feeling came over me that I have never experienced before. I just saw on live television hundreds of people lose their lives. I immediately phoned my own mother and broke the horrible news to her as reports were coming in that "something" hit the Pentagon. My heart sunk. America's might had just been hit. There was no telling when it was going to end, what else was going to happen. And it didn't stop, there was one more plane that crashed in a field. And all they showed over and over again were the images of the planes flying through the buildings. I couldn't get those images out of my head for days. When I would go to bed at night they would play over and over in my mind. I live close to the airport and was terribly afraid of airplanes for a long time after. I decided that being close to an airport was not a good idea, so I left. It was eerily silent as I drove. People everywhere were in a daze. The gas stations were lined with cars waiting to get gas. There was some rumor that gas prices were going to go through the roof. I couldn't believe that people were so concerned about gas prices after what had just happened. I was stopped at an intersection listening to news radio when I looked over at the car beside me. It was a woman and she looked right back at me and shook her head and held up her hands as if to say, what is going on? I just shook my head back. That night my husband and I got out our dusty bible and began reading again and we prayed. It was an unbelievable day that I will never ever forget.