story6308.xml

story6308.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I first would like to extend my prayers to the families that lost loved ones on this tragic day. We had waited for so long to take our three children to Disney. On Tuesday September 11 we were up bright and early. We decided it was the day we were going to go to Epcot. It was just before lunch time and we had enter into one of the rides. As everyone who has been to Disney knows that all rides end in a gift shop. We got to our turn for the ride, entered the doors and the next thing we knew we were in the gift shop. We were with a couple that lived in England. They told us that they had been on this ride the day before and this is not how it works. When we exited the gift shop there was an employee of Disney that told us that they were closing the park. We asked if it was just Epcot or all of the parks. We were told that the only thing that would remain open were the resorts. When we asked what was going on all we were told is that it was a national emergency. You can imagine what it was like getting all of those people out of the park. When we got to the car and turned on the radio we couldn't believe what we were hearing. We returned to our cabin and were glued to the TV. When we heard that a plane had gone down in rural PA we were very concerned. At that time we started calling home to check on everyone. We only live about 50 miles from that site. Even our children were very somber. They had everything open at the resorts such as pools and game rooms. You saw nobody in those areas when you did go to get something to eat. Everyone was gathered around TV's to get the most updated information. After we found out that Disney had been on their list of places to attack it really made you wonder if they hadn't of grounded all the planes if there would have been more freedom loving people would have lost their lives. The changes the next day in security we needed but it really showed you how we lost some of our freedom. We then had to fly home on Saturday. We didn't even know until late Friday evening if we were even going to get to go home. Again the security increase and the somber feeling at the airport was easliy seen. I was never so relieved to land in Pittsburgh as I was that night.
The Bakaysa Family
Cherry Tree, PA