story1411.xml

story1411.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-22

I was driving to work with a group at a hospital near the coast of Lake Michigan. I was driving through some beautiful woods, flipping through radio stations looking for a song when I stumbled on a simulcast from CBS but I thought they were talking about a fire in a local tower. When I heard it was the World Trade Center I picked up my cell phone and flipped through my planner looking for my cousin's phone number because he doesn't work very far from the Trade Center. I wanted to be sure he was okay. For some crazy reason my call got through to his answering machine at work so I left a message. My daughter called me on the phone and was crying and wanted to know about my family members in New York. I told her to call one of the cousins I knew would be home. My cousin called me back and said he was getting out of there fast. I didn't hear from him again for 6 and half hours. He left his building about the time the first tower collapsed. I started to cry because I have another cousin who works for Con Ed and I knew that because of his job he would be at the Towers assessing damage. I thought he was dead. I am originally from the New York area and my father was a New York city cop. I felt as though my hometown was being destroyed. I got home as fast as I could to check on the rest of my family-the Firefighter cousin, the policeman cousin, the teacher cousin. I found out everyone was okay by communicating online with a relative. The only one we couldn't find was the Con Ed cousin. My other cousin had to walk uptown and across the 59th Street bridge to get transportation home. We eventually found the Con-Ed cousin alive but he had a close call. All of my family lived, but I still cried for the others who simply went to work and died.When I visited the site in April it was mostly cleaned up but I remembered other happier times spent in the area, but I still cry for those who lost someone cause it could have been me too. My family was lucky.