story1120.xml

story1120.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

I homeschool my 2 girls and had just sent them downstairs to the schoolroom to get started and was going to check my messages really quickly and close out my computer. On the voicemail was a meaasge from my husband saying, "Turn on the t.v.....It probably won't affect me, but it will be a long day for some people here.". The World Trade Center had just been hit and he saw it on the news. I turned on the news just before they reported about the Pentagon being hit - the Pentagon --- where my husband works. It didn't seem real. It couldn't be real. They had just delivered our household goods 3 weeks before. We had finished our tour in Hawaii and moved here for the great job at the Pentagon. We hardly knew anyone yet. The news just showed it over and over again. It seemed like a movie - people with faces grey from ash and rubble running away from the WTC. All those military men and women walking away from the Pentagon. I desperately watched for my husband to appear on screen. I prayed "please God, not him." My Dad had passed away just 7 months prior, to the date. I kept looking at my Dad's picture - thinking "Dad would know where Drew is right now." I was certain that my father would somehow be able to calm me with words of special bunkers and safe places and even statistics. I screamed for him to send Drew back to me. I begged. I prayed. And I cried. An hour had passed and still no call from Drew. I keep looking out my front window expecting some awful military car to drive up and say "we regret to inform you". Little did I realize that all this wasn't going to work like those Friday night movies on t.v. Two hours passed. I have now put a video on for the kids. "Thank you God for not letting them realize what was going on." The news is reporting that another plane is headed for the DC area. The phone rings... it is my friend from Hawaii asking, "Is Drew okay?". I barely choke out that I don't know. More phone calls. I keep answering, praying each time that it is him. Each call is a friend checking on Drew. Three hours have passed, the girls are eating lunch now. They are still in a bubble of not knowing. I wonder how long it can last. "Please God, keep them innocent from this." I decide that I need to call my Mom and tell her that I haven't heard form Drew. She is on the west coast and had not seen the news. She is mourning her husband and now her youngest daughter may have also lost a husband. Four hours and thousands of tears have passed. The phone rings and I hear his voice. "Oh, thank you God!" He says that he has to go away and I don't understand. All I can say is "I love you so much." I finally understand enough to ask if he is going someplace safe - he says yes, and he will see me in a few days. It doesn't make any sense - we need him, but so does his job, so does the military and so does our country. So, this is what service and duty come down to. I walk downstairs and hug my girls. First, I tell them that Daddy is okay.....