story5251.xml

story5251.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I went to work as usual that morning. I was at my desk when I heard one of my co-workers say that a plane had run into one of the World Trade Center buildings. That was at about 8:50 A.M. The news spread like wildfire throughout our office. Our Human Resource department turned on the large TV in the lunchroom. Most of us went into the lunchroom to witness the horror of both buildings in fire. The feeling of dread and unbelief was obvious on each person's face. At that point in time, we knew that it could not have been an accident, but if it was, what went wrong? Was the Air Traffic Tower giving our pilots wrong instructions? It was hard to believe that anyone would intentionally do such a heinous act. We tried to work, but our heart and minds were not on work. When we received calls from our customers, we talked about the incident. We felt close to this because we had an office in New York on Chambers St and we had just moved from that one to another building only a few days before. Also, we were trying to find some of our New York personnel, and had a hard time finding a couple. One man had walked from near Ground Zero back over the Brooklyn Bridge. Needless to say we were all suffering with the hurt and pain, and yes, fright. And some of us cried. Some of us prayed silently. All day long we had the TV on in the lunchroom, and were being constantly updated on the latest findings. We were again shocked and appalled when the other two crashes occurred. The one in Shanksville, PA and the other at the Pentagon. Finally, when it was time to leave to go home, we looked upward into the sky - not a plane to be found. Since this town of Runnemede is not far from the Philadelphia International Airport, there is always at least one plane in the sky. Nothing. The trip home was somber, with the smell of smoke in the air. The wind had blown the smoke all the way down here to South Jersey. For the next few days, I felt this overwhelming feeling of dread. No planes at night - just deathly silence. The healing process is still going on, but I don't think any of us who are old enough to really understand what happened will ever forget it. I believe this incident has made people more aware of what the really important things in life are. I think more of us "smug "Americans will not be so trusting as we have in the past. I don't think a day has gone by (in my life, anyway) since last September 11, that I haven't thought about what happened that day. I have saved some issues of Time Magazine to give to my little 3 year old grand-daughter so she can get an idea of how that day has affected this country. ....and God has been good to us.