story6683.xml

story6683.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

My story actually begins in a little burg outside of Jacksonville called Richlands. I was a home health aide at that time and was at a client's home. I had been sent out to the convenient store down the road that morning, a little after 9am. As I was coming back down the road towards her home, the announcement came over the radio that "two jets have crashed into the World Trade Center". I remember thinking frantically to myself that I had heard of that building before, but could not recall where it was. After a few more minutes of the news story, I realized that I knew exactly where the World Trade Center was and all the memories from the earlier attack came rushing back to me. I got back to my client's home and immediately asked if I could turn on the TV. I watched in horror the reality of what was happening in our beloved country and it still would not completely soak in. I tried to call my husband, then an active-duty Marine at Camp Lejeune. I could not get through. I then called our neighbor on base and asked her if she'd seen. She had and was taping everything on TV. Realizing that this was an act of terrorism, we were both very concerned about the future of our husbands. I then contacted my Mom in Ohio who had not heard or seen anything. She just hadn't bothered turning on the TV that day, preferring to read a book. We cried together and talked about the loss of all those people. It was a very terrifying moment, even for those of us who were states away from the actual attack. Shortly after I hung up with her, my client's neighbor walked over to inform us that the Pentagon had been hit as well and that there was another plane out there that had been hijacked. The world seemed to be coming to an end. I had debated going home early from work, but decided that there was nothing that I could do at the house and that my client needed my care more importantly. I stayed the remaining two hours, but rushed home when the time came. It didn't dawn on me that for the first time since we'd been living on base, I was going to be checked out at the gate by one guard while another walked around looking into my car armed with an M16. That was a pure reality check on my part. I nearly bawled just getting myself the four blocks down the road to our house. It was very scary and it was just starting. To my great relief, my husband was actually at the house. I ran in and gave him the biggest hug that I'd ever given. We didn't say much at first and just watched the images over and over again as well as the current rescue operation. We then received the call that the base was increasing its security level to the highest which is Delta and my husband had to go back to the shop. We weren't sure if he'd be back that night or not. Thankfully, he was. The following three months before his retirement was very difficult. We were watching friends of ours being shipped out left and right. The gate never really did get much easier to get through (though I was thankful for that) and the proud feeling I would get when the helicopters and jets flew over the house increased, but in an eerie, realistic manner.

I realize that my story isn't earth-shattering or even remotely interesting...but it's mine. It shook my confidence in the safety of this country just as much as everyone else. My husband is no longer in active duty and we now have a beautiful little girl just blessed to us two weeks ago. Her health and well-being are the most important things to us now and my concern for our country's safety is connected to both of those.

I sincerely hope that everyone is recovering from this horrible blow as well as they can. God bless us all.