story7517.xml

story7517.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-15

I work one day a week...Tuesdays. So I happened to be at work that day. I heard on our local news radio station, WGN, that the first plane had hit, but really didn't think too much of it because I figured it was an accident. I was talking to a fellow co-worker when another co-worker came up to us and said that another plane had hit the other tower. At that point we went into the lunch room to watch the TV. We and several other workers must have watched all the events unfold for another 2 hours. We all sat there in silance. I wanted to cry, but you know, you're at work. The company I worked for is a medical distribution company, so pretty soon all our hospital customers, especially in Chicago, started calling for extra supplies because no one knew what was going to be happening. I couldn't wait to get home that day. And once I did, I proceeded to spend the next 4 days glued to the TV. I'd fall into bed exhausted every night, I didn't want to stop watching in case something else happened. I just couldn't believe this was happening to us!!!! We're the U.S. Stuff like that doesn't happen here. Finally on Saturday I had to quit watching for a while. Luckily TV Land was having a Brady Bunch marathon that weekend. Nothing bad ever happens to the Brady's, so I got to take my mind off of it for a little while.

After September 11th, some friends of my cousin decided to make Angels for the families of the victims. Several schools and volunteers in the area eventually ended up making close to 15000 of these Angels. Though they were intended to go to the families, they ended up on a tree at Ground Zero. Mayor Guliani then invited these ladies out to view the tree. I got to go along and was allowed to see Ground Zero up close. It was a very emotional day! Firemen, Port Authority Officers, and workers from all over the site came to the tree to meet us. I can't even describe the feeling of the place. We met such wonderful people and they were so thankful for these little angels and there were hugs all around when we left, but it was hard to believe you were standing at this spot you saw on TV for months, this place where such evil happened! It's something I know I'll never forget. And though it's hard to say you're GLAD you were there, I was happy I had the priviledge of going and paying my respects, in a way...I'd like to go back someday. Maybe when they've built what they're going to build on the site I'll go back.