story4740.xml

story4740.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I am an attorney practicing in a one man law office in a town of approximately 16,000 in what was the heart of Alabama coal country Walker County). Jasper is the county seat and my office is approximately two blocks from the courthouse. I was at my desk when my secretery Shashonna Ford received a call from he mother-in-law Hanna who told her plane had hit the World Trade Center. We had a radio and began following the unfolding story and also followed it on the internet. The first pictures of the destruction we saw were still photographs on the ABC News web site.
I left my office at noon and went to my parents home approximately a mile from my office. My parents had been watching the news all morning and we watched together for a while. I returned to my office but little work was done the remainder of the day.
I serve as a municipal judge in Carbon Hill, a small town approximately 14 miles west of Jasper. Court was scheduled for 5:00 p.m. and we decided it was important to hold court that evening because, as difficult as it was, because one thing the terriorist wanted to do was disrupt the work of government and business.
I later found out that one of my friends from church, Dorothy Ellison, a retired high school teacher, had a granddaughter who working in New York City and she was not in the Trade Center but was going to the area when the planes hit and the towers fell. She wound up running for blocks to get away from the destruction.
My wife is a third grade teacher and it was very difficult for her to help calm the fears of her children as they learned of the tragedy.
One of the hardest thing I had to do was on Sunday, September 16, 2001 at Sumiton United Methodist Church when I was in front of the church where I assist our Pastor with some of the worship service prior to his sermon. It was almost too emotional for me to speak.