story789.xml

story789.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-06-17

That morning, I had sent my children off to school on a beautiful Sept. day. I was preparing for a job interview with FOX 43 in York PA. When I arrived at the news station, I saw on their TV in the lobby one of the towers was on fire. My first question to the receptionist was "Did Osama Bin Ladin try to blow it up again?" She replied with "No, a plane had just struck the buidling." My first thought that this was a tragic accident, as I sat watching, the second plane struck. Then, I knew - we were under some kind of attack. During my interview, we were interupted once to be informed that the Pentagon was also struck. At that point, the gentleman interviewing me stated he would like to reschedule my interview. Of course, I had no objections, I was worried about my children.

I left the building, immediately called my husband who was working in Baltimore and he assured me everything was O.K. there. I asked him if he thought I should pick up our sons. He wasn't sure, he didn't want them to be scared of the current events, but didn't want them without us, either. During my drive home, I kept thinking of my oldest son, whose school sits within 10 miles of Peach Bottom Nucelar Power Plant in PA. I contacted my Dad who is a retired U.S.A.F. colonel and he felt that terrorist would want to do immediate collateral damage, not a delayed reaction such as hitting a nucelar plant.

Still unsure of the right thing to do with my sons, when I arrived home, I turned on the TV as I was changing my cloths. I then heard about the plane going down in PA. That was too close to home, I couldn't drive the 12 miles to pick up my oldest son fast enough, then I went and picked up my youngest son from our local elementary school.

In a child's eyes, my youngest son was concerned for what was happening, but he also was upset because I had picked him up as he was standing in the lunch line - He was hungry and wanted to go to McDonald's. Needless to say, we went home, I fixed them lunch and we talked about the events taking place.

For the next several days, as a family, we were horrified as to what had taken place. Since that fateful day we have prayed for the victims and their families and for the changes that have taken place everyday since then.

During a recent trip to Washington DC, we were able to few the flag that was found at the World Trade Center. All of us, stood in silence and remembered that day.