story6342.xml

story6342.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I was in the park, not far from my home, taking a tennis lesson. Someone came out from the tennis center's office and told us that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We immediately went inside to watch the TV. The instructor said he used to work at the WTC and that the towers would survive this accident. When I got home, my 18 year-old son informed me that one tower had collapsed already and the other was falling as we spoke. We were in a state of shock. He told me that his father, who worked not far from the WTC, had called to say he was alright and was on his way home. We didn't hear from him until four or five hours later. He had walked from downtown Manhattan all the way uptown to the 59th Street bridge. He, and many others, walked out of Manhattan and into Queens this way. While crossing the bridge, they saw fighter planes fly overhead. He thought we were at war. He walked to his mother's house, where he finally called again. Somehow, I was able to get there and bring him home.