story3053.xml

story3053.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was at work and sitting at my desk when a friend of mine came to my office door and said a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center. I was shocked, of course, but at that time I assumed it was another airplane with mechanical problems and it was just a terrible accident. A few minutes later, the same friend told me that another plane had crashed into another World Trade Center tower. That was when the entire world realized this was no accident. I remember feeling such a deeply pervading sense of sadness and shock and I also felt a strong need to talk to my children. My son, Justin, was living and working near Denver, CO and my daughter, Megan, was a sophomore in college at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, SD. I talked via telephone with both of these children several times that day. It was a great comfort to me and also to them. I also have a son, Owen, who was a sophomore in high school. I wanted him close to me, too, on that terrible day, but I knew he was O.K. in school. When he came home, he called me and told me how very disappointed and upset he was due to the fact that their study hall monitor would not allow the high school students to watch any of the events on television that morning. He was disappointed because he felt he had missed out on seeing a very important part of our country's history-in-the-making because a stubborn teacher wouldn't deviate from the regular school curriculum - not even for this. It was an extremely unfortunate decision for that teacher to make.

To this day, barely a day goes by when I don't think about the victims of terror on that horrible day. My family's prayers go out to each and every one of the victims and their surviving families. I have to say, though, that I have a special place in my heart for the passengers on the flight that went down in Pennsylvania. Those men and women are our country's greatest heroes! God Bless them all and God Bless YOU all!

Mary Jo Mohr