story2951.xml

story2951.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was at my desk at a neurology practice in Lutherville, MD going about my daily routine as usual. It was quite strange that the phones were not working at their usualy hectic pace for a Tuesday, and that patients were not arriving on time, cancelling, not showing, etc. A patient came in and informed us that a jet had crashed into the World Trade Center not once but twice. I called home to my parents in Dundalk, MD (a suburb 18 miles from me) and they were frantic telling me what happened, and as they were telling me, the third jet took out the Pentagon. At that point, I got frantic, knowing in my heart and from my priot military training that the US was under attack! My folks put the phone to the TV so I could hear the newscasts. I was totally numb, passed the news to my coworkers and we got a radio and tuned it in to hear what was going on. Then the fourth plane crashed in PA. A State of Emergency was declared for MD--schools started closing, etc. I put a message on the voice mail at home to reassure my daughter that I was all right, and to check in with me at work. I called my other daughter's dorm at college to let her know I was ok and to check on her. She put the phone to the TV to let me hear what was going on, at that point the World Trade Center collapsed! She also informed me that she was chewing out a classmate with a cynical attitude about what was going on. My boss at the time didn't have a total clue as to why someone would do what they did, or why they picked the targets they did, and no matter what anyone tried to say to him, we couldn't reach him on the magnitude or the gravity of the attacks--he was more p.o.'ed that he couldn't fly down south to give a lecture!! When I got home from work that day, my boyfriend and I just stood in his living room teary eyed at the TV, not believing what we were seeing--all we could do was hold onto each other. I lost that job 13 days later for a myriad of imaginative reasons (he never did say why he canned me, but it was for the better--after a short period of working temp jobs, I have redefined my life, priorities, and family, and found a great job with better pay and bennies!! Quite a lesson in priorities...