story585.xml

story585.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-05-11

Eight months ago today, I left my house and headed for work like any other day. I work about 15 blocks from "ground zero". I usually get in early and turn on the two tv's in my dept. Around 8:50AM as I was watching the end of Good Morning America they interupted saying that a plane had hit one of the towers. They were reporting from the news helicopter. My co workers nwere starting to file in now and we were all just watching. What was happening? Just blocks away. I went to the phone and called my mom who works on Long Island. It was still early enough and you were able to get through on the phone lines. I was relaying to her what the tv was saying. All of a sudden there was an explosion. Because of the camera angle on the tv I did not realize that it was a second plane. Within seconds the TV confirmed that it was a second plane. I had been standing, I dropped to my chair , and screamed into the phone, "my God mommy another plane hit the other tower" At that moment i knew, my coworkers knew, the worlod knew, this was no accident. Some of my co workers went to the roof of my building, there are no words to describe what they saw. My building was evacuated but we were sent back in after a while. No one knew quite what to do. Then the towers started to come down. We sat, blocks away and watched as this unfolded on tv. The plane had hit the pentagon by now I believe and the other had gone down in penn. I think back now on how we all reacted. I had to keep calling people, try to get through, to connect. Others sat rivited to the TV, others just worked on. We were all in shock. I was comforted by the fact that my brother n law who is a nyc firefighter was on vacation in hawaii. He was safe. But so many weren't. So many innocent people lost there lives. Many walked home that day from Manhattan to the outer boroughs. There was this errie silence in the streets of midtown, people just walking, many covered in soot, wearing masks. Very different from the streets of downtown, where chaos reined. Everything about that morning is etched in my mind. What I ate for breakfast, what I was wearing. We all changed that day, an innocence was lost. It has been 8 months today and life goes on, but I see that morning in my minds eye every day. We will never forget......... NEVER!