story10322.xml

story10322.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2004-01-13

I worked for Merrill Lynch for 33 years and had worked at One Liberty Plaza when the World Trade Center was being built. And I can remember looking out the window watching this incredibly tall building going up. I remember when they were filming 'King Kong' and we went into the city to see KONG laying at the foot of the World Trade Center with the make believe broken sidewalk around him.

I then went to work in NJ when Merrill started moving their Operations out there. I worked in NJ for six year before going back to the City in November of 2000. I didn't realize how 'unexciting' working in NJ had been until I went back into the City. It was so invigorating, so much energy, so much excitement and so many coffee shops!!!!!

Everyday it was the same routine. Catch the train at South Amboy NJ. Switch for the PATH and get off at the World Trade Center. I would be carried along with the crowds up the stairs and then the escalator. I would bear right off the escalator passing the sales people selling wireless services. Everyday I wondered how could they stand on their fee all day. I would go into the American Coffee Shop and get my Latte...the people who worked there were so friendly, always smiling. Holding that precious cup of Latte I would proceed through the revolving doors into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, I observed the line of people waiting on line to show Security their badges before being allowed to go up the elevators to their jobs. I would cross the bridge over to the World Financial Center to my job.

In the evening it was the same thing in reverse....out daily routine becomes so ingrained in us that we do it without even thinking about it.

In July of 2001 I moved to Florida. It was a quick decision my husband and I made and it all fell into place. Nothing I had ever planned had ever gone so smoothly. The house was sold, we packed, we moved.

On September 11, 2001 my Aunt Diane called me to say a plane had hit the WTC and she was upset because my cousin RoseMarie worked there. I told my overly dramatic Aunt to not worry, it was just an accident and everything would be ok. I switched the channel.

And then the second plane hit and of course I put the News back on and I watched in horror as the Trade Center collapsed. There are no words to describe how one felt watching this. To this day I feel a gasp in my throat when I try to touch and feel what happened that day. I have been consumed by September 11 since that day.

In December of 2003 I finally returned to New York to visit Ground Zero. I cried, of course I cried. And I stood there and looked around and I thought about the chaos of that day. And how could that possibly be that those events I saw on TV on September 11 had actually happened right here.

I looked at the World Financial Center at the spot where the bridge used to connect to the Trade Center. It was now a huge window. I looked at One Liberty Plaza and I remembered my youth and the construction site and all the construction workers at lunch time of thirty years ago. I wonder if the people selling the wireless services and the coffee shop people were able to get out that day. And I wonder which people that took the train with me into the city everyday had died on September 11. How many of those people waiting to go up in the elevators were able to get out that day. So many memories wrapped up in this collection of buildings that no longer exist physically, but in my mind are so very vivid. The impact of what you no longer see on that sight is very powerful.

I feel a pull on my heart. Nothing has ever touched me this way before. I will never forget it. I don't want to forget it and I don't want anyone else to forget it.

I very rarely think of what I would have witnessed had I not moved to Florida in July of 2001. I know God had a hand in my leaving when I did. I remain obsessed with September 11, 2001, with the events and with the people who died and their families. I never ever think about the monsters who did it.