story488.xml

story488.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-05-01

September 11, 2001 will go down in the history
books as the day America was brought to her knees. That
morning, I went to my job as a pediatric nurse worried
about the usual mundane things and left that afternoon with
my attitude towards life completely changed. When my office
manager walked in around 9:30 AM, pale as a ghost, we had
just heard the news that the first tower had been hit, but
had no idea of the magnificent damage to come.
Hearing about the Pentagon really hit home for me.
The town I had just moved from was about 20 minutes away
from it and most people I knew either worked there or
somewhere near there, including my dad. I called my parent's
house as soon as I could to find out if my mom knew
anything, but all she could tell me was that he had been
evacuated. The next few, dark hours were filled with more
and more bad news and we finally had to turn off the radio
because we could not listen to any more reports listing the
number of casualties.
After work, I called my mom again, and heard that
my dad was alright, after traipsing through a large part of
Washington, D.C. with some coworkers. I also found out that
his best friend, (whose office was right next to the bombed
section) was miraculously okay as well.
Two men that preach at my church both had amazing
escapes as well. One was blown across his office as the
wall next to his chair was completely destroyed. He emerged
without a scratch. The other was attending a conference that
day and returned to find his office missing entirely.
September 11, 2001 was a tragic day for our country,
but it also brought us closer and caused a patriotic
movement to sweep our beautiful, free country.