story5416.xml

story5416.xml

born-digital

story

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no

2002-09-11

I woke up the morning of September 11 thinking about how tired I was. My 20 month old son, Kenny, had been up a lot the night before coughing. Also, I was 5 months pregnant and was just starting to get to that "uncomfortable at night" stage. I had had my ultrasound the day before and my husband and I decided to find out what we were having since we knew this was our last pregnancy. We were overjoyed to find out that we were having a girl! I couldn't wait to share the news with my friends at work. I was staying at my parent's house, as I had been doing for the past 15 months, because my Mom was helping my husband and I out by watching Kenny for us. He had some health issues and we were trying to keep him out of day care as much as possible. Anyhow, I was in the upstairs bathroom getting ready for work when the phone rang. I knew something was wrong because no one calls that early unless there is a problem. All I could think of was that one of my brothers or sister was having trouble. It was my brother calling from Boston telling us to turn on the TV because a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. My Dad was yelling at my Mom to turn on the TV and I was telling him to be quiet so he would not wake the baby. When the TV finally came on, I could not believe the images. It was so horrible to watch and think about what those people were going through but we honestly thought it was just a horrible accident. The three of us were horrified as we watched the second plane hitting the tower. We knew then that something was terribly wrong. I began to weep and felt as if I was going to be sick. I wanted to go upstairs and hold my little boy and shelter him from all of this but I didn't want to wake him from his sleep and from his innocence.

After almost an hour, I finally had to tear myself away, as I had a long commute ahead of me and knew I would be late if I didn't leave at that moment. I turned on KFWB in the car and listened the whole way in to work. My husband and I kept calling each other to give each other updates. He was watching the TV at our home when the first tower fell. He started screaming, "Oh my God - it's falling - it's falling". I said a silent prayer that my co-workers were ok. We had a small office in one of the towers (the first one hit) and I knew there was a group of people from my office in NY that day for a Distributor/VAR Meeting. I am happy to report that all of my co-workers did make it out alive, including Michael Hingson who walked down some 78 flights of stairs with his guide dog, Roselle. I heard about the second tower falling from the Radio Announcer and I just started crying. I was surprised at the level of intensity of the pain I was feeling. I looked around on the freeway to see the faces of other people who were crying or trying to hold back their tears. We were all dazed and just looking at each other. It was like we needed to have some kind of human connection. At least that is how I felt.

One thing I will never forget about the commute in that day (about 75 minutes) is how eerily quiet the skies were. Normally, I see many planes overhead but that day there were none. I knew the planes had been grounded but I kept looking up to see if there were any other highjacked planes headed our way. I remember being scared to death that I was on the freeways in Los Angeles, which seemed a likely target for more terror. I couldn't wait to get off the roads so I could feel a little more safe. I spent the rest of the day wondering when the West Coast was going to be hit with this wave of terror. Thankfully, it never did.

Not a lot of work was accomplished that day. Most everyone spent the day talking with co-workers or calling loved ones. We would occassionally get email updates about our co-workers that were in New York to let us know that everyone had been accounted for and was alright. I spent some time trying to track friends down that live and work in NYC. I left the office early so I could beat traffic home. All I wanted to do was see my son and give hugs and kisses to him and all my family members.

Even though I was not personally affected on 9/11/01, I feel that my life has definitely changed. It was hard when my daughter Emily was born 4 months later not to think, "What kind of world have I brought you into"? I know that our innocence as a country died that day and can never be reclaimed. I hold my family a little tighter these days and say a prayer of thanksgiving every day that we had another joyous day together. It will be a sad day when my children come to ask me about the events of 9/11/01 and where I was. I hope that I can convey the horror of the events that day; the fear and chaos as the day progressed and the anxiety we, as a nation, felt in waiting and hoping to find survivors. I hope I can make them feel the strength we had as we came together and the pride we felt and still feel for our country and all of the many heroes that arose from the rubble that day. We will never forget 9/11/01 and the people who gave their lives and I feel it is important to pass this on to our future generations so that they will never forget either.

In closing I would like to thank all of the many volunteers, firemen and women, policemen and women, military personnel and the many others that have been so strong this past year. You have helped us begin the healing process. I also want to say to the families of all the victims that you are in our hearts and prayers. Your loved ones will never be forgotten. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!