story5920.xml

story5920.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I was preparing myself for work, it was approximately 6 am in the morning, and as I do every morning I turned on the television to the Arizona morning Fox 10 news when Breaking News interrupted the regular news. Always having the volume set at a level which I can hear from a close distance I hear "A plane crashed into the World Trade Center..." I swiftly ran to the tv set to watch, the news reporter continued with " were not sure if this is an accident or terrorist related", when just moments later another plane hit the south tower and the news reporter immediately followed with " Yes, we now know we are under a terrorist attack. " This devasted me and I was glued to the television set. I woke my husband up from bed and told that America was under attack, he too was then glued to the tv set. I also had to explain what happened to my 11 year old daughter, fortunately for me she attends a catholic school and they had many individuals available to further explain what was happening and how to cope with it. Unfortunately, for me my place of employment conists of a government facility, which at the time was not at all secure. However, because we were a great risk factor for something like this to happen to our building, they decided to let us go home and like the many New Yorkers, this his very close to home and many of us were terrified and were thankful of the decision which was made.

After leaving work, I went to my mothers to check on her, and boy when I explained to her exactly what was going on she quickly made comments about the attack on Pearl Harbor and started talking about canning goods, once again, and buying water, and making sure we had all necessities covered which we may need in order to survive, however never having been through anything like this before I told her that everything would be ok, that no one would go hungry, but she said to me " Girl, you just don't understand how bad it was, how many of us suffered, you need to prepare yourself, they also sent your brother home from work and I have sent him to the store already. On your way home you make sure you stop by the store." To ease her I said "ok". But, instead I picked up my daughter from school and headed home. I called my husband the minute I got home to make sure everything was ok there and continued to watch the continuos coverage about the attack. That night I had nightmares, some were absolutely unbelieveable. I guess I really hadn't understood exactly how this had impacted me. But in the days to follow, along with many others I became brave and united as one with them.

God Bless America

Leticia Benitez-Gonzalea