Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: Construction workers were banging away for days on the floor above me so noise and thuds of dropped equipment were nothing new. This time they moved the whole floor on a slant as an earthquake would disembowel the contents of tidy home. Papers were flying outside the tiny windows near my cubicle like a ticker-tape parade. Yet as a tried and true in-your-face New Yorker (yes, I'm still a New Yorker although I've lived in the Garden State for six years), not even the slanted floor or flying papers concerned me. It wasn't until my normally gentle-voiced supervisor screamed, "Everybody, get out" that I thought there was a problem. I stopped to get my huge bag and tote bag because as any woman will tell you, your bag contains everything important in life. Or so I thought. I methodically walked down seventeen floors of lightly smoke-filled stairs. I remember seeing firemen climbing in the opposite direction which gave me my first clue of what was happening - a fire. Reaching the promenade level of One World Trade Center, I wasn't prepared for the sight. Glass was everywhere. There were injured. Policeman were screaming, "Walk, don't run. Cover your heads. Don't look back!" I distinctly remember hearing thumps but I had no frame of reference for the sound. It wasn't until much later that I learned that the thumps were bodies hitting the ground. "Don't look back" was not only a safety order but a call that protected my now-fragile mental state. To this day, I feel blessed that I didn't witness the horror of seeing my fellow man - well you fill in the blanks. Then an anonymous voice said, "A plane hit the building." I kept walking, stopping a few minutes later to what I thought was the sound of a sonic boom. A huge plane was aiming directly for Tower Two and in the minute that it would take me to turn my head, the plane struck. I witnessed a body plunging to finality. Fear finally struck and I started to run. I heard one of my co-workers screaming, "Oh my God. Oh my God!" I knew what he was witnessing and I didn't look back. My flashbacks include the plane hitting Tower Two but thankfully I wasn't witness to masses of my friends dying. I was still running, trying to think where I should run to. Were there more kamikazes to come? My husband worked at the Verizon building on Broad Street. Where was Broad Street? I stopped a detective directing traffic to ask him in which direction I should run. He pointed me to safety's direction. "Thank you for helping us today, officer." He knew that this was more than just a casual thank you. I somehow reached Broad Street and found my husband. Nothing has been the same since. I've lost my job of 29 years due to the terrorist cowards. I saw a therapist. Surely, I would need some kind of help after facing death. After two sessions, he sent me packing reassuring me that I would be fine. To an extent, he was right. No one ever forgets a brush with death, the loss of loved ones or a long-held job. But from that tragedy, a new life has started for me. I'm attending Brookdale Community College on a full-time basis. I always wanted to be a registered nurse. Now at 51 years of age, I'm getting the opportunity to fulfill a dream that I though had eluded me. And now I carry the smallest of bags. My family, the important treasures of my life, couldn't possibly fit in there. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story7227.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-13 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 205.188.209.43