story20698.xml

story20698.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2006-09-11

I was sitting in a meeting in Paris having flown over from Los Angeles on the 9th of September, 2001. I was there as a part of a team to assimiliate US expatriates working in France with the company that I was working for at the time as an HR Executive.

As the meeting was in full force, my assistant entered the room and she looked ashen. I was the facilitator for the meetings and she asked me to step outside. I immediately thought it was something terribly wrong. She told me that a plane had just hit the WTC and it was on CNN. We thought ...an accident..a small plane. We were so wrong..

I returned and broke the meeting and someone brought two televisions in and we were just awestruck that this had happened..in our home country.

Here we were, talking about the world being a smaller place now, and that global commerce was the wave of the future and I felt so far from home.

I lived in New York for over ten years and lived about 5 minutes from the WTC. Many of those in the room were from New York and were utterly grieve stricken about neighbors, friends and in three cases, relatives ( a sister and a brother and a mother)who worked in the WTC.

Then the second Tower was hit and we hadn't even processed the first event and now we were really afraid for our country and its people. Was it war? I thought about Los Angeles, my home and my family, scattered all over the US. We knew one thing for sure, this was no accident and this was really really going to change our lives, our worlds.

When the Pentagon was hit, the room was in uproars, many were crying, in disbelief that this was happening while we were so far away. Helplessness, never felt so real.

It hit me out of the blue, my brother and sister in law worked at the Pentagon often. They were contractors and I now felt this event right in my own heart.

Trying to get lines out proved impossible. Air travel was suspended. We got word from our Paris office that all Americans had to check in at the Embassy.

We decided that we would convene and everyone headed to their own corners to go in ..to process. I remember going to a McDonald's in Paris..a little piece of home and definatly ordering a Big Mac..I couldn't eat it..I went to my corporate apartment and just plugged into email..thank God for that. I was able to communicate with my husband-to-be, my family and learned that my brother and sisterinlaw were fine.

For over three weeks I was frantically keeping in touch electronically and then via telephone. Still not able to leave. I did not return to the US until October 5th and I went straight to New York. I had to see it for myself. It wouldn't be real until I could see it.

I discovered that a dear colleague of mine had died a hero, at Cantor helping her employees get out of there. A true testament to what HR is all about.

It affected me deeply, this event. I have now developed a fear of flying. I am someone who has flown in every type of aircraft imaginable and now I completely freak out during an hour flight. 475,000 air miles over a career of 20 years, hopping on planes all over the world. I also have developed a disdain for Middle Eastern men. I know that I shouldn't but everytime I see one, I am afraid they may be a sleeper and its only time.

I am so angry at the terrorist behind this. They used our freedoms against us and we will never be the same.

I am so angry that we are still suffering losses from this war that followed. I am so angry we haven't caught Bin Laden..yet!!!!

I am so ANGRY!!!!