story6213.xml

story6213.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I was leaving work to teach 4 & 5 year-olds handwashing at a local day care when our secretary told us one of the trade centers had been hit by an air plane. Thinking it was a weird accident I went on to teach my class. When I left the child care I heard on the radio that there were other airplanes no accounted for. I started thinking what is going on. When I got back to work someone had turned on the TV from the classroom and saw the second airplane hit the second tower. I was in shock. It was surreal. For the rest of the morning all the employees were watching the TV. Trying to put things together. What is giong on here. My best friend works for the FBI at Quantico Bay and my boyfriend was living in Peennsylvania. I couldn't help but think how they were doing becasue all phone lines were jammed. That night and for days afterward I couldn't help but cry when I heard a song or heard about the last moments of the people involved on those 4 planes and in those buildings. To think I always felt safe in the United States. We have been at war, but never on our mainland. It made me feel how velnerable we were and how precious life is. I went to New York, never having been before, in January. Standing at ground zero and to still see the smoke and soot and devestation brought a new light to my life. I stood there reading memorials, thinking about the lost loved ones, the ones never to be identified and remnances of their lives that were recovered. I signed a memorial outside an American Red Cross volunteer station and hugged tighter onto my boyfriend and cried as we saw similar emotions on the faces of everyone else. It was now a movie. This was real life in America- IN GOD WE STILL TRUST.