story4917.xml

story4917.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

The morning of September 11, 2001 I was at home.
I turned on the news as I ususally do and it was around
8:55 am. I saw that one of the World Trade Towers was
smoking badly and Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson were
speculating as to why. About ten minutes later I saw the
second plane hit the second World Trade tower. Immediately
I thought "this is no fire, this is an attack!" It seemed
impossible to be watching this. I felt like I was watching a movie in a theater. It was unbelieveable.

I spent the rest of the day channel surfing from CNN to the other major news stations. I called some friends and we
were all shocked and stunned. In the days to follow I
continued to watch this tradgedy and felt so sad at the
loss of so many wonderful people. I pondered how this
would affect so many families and how they would go on.

I had lost my mom, who was also my best friend, the year
before. This made my loss greater and I could not even
call mom to talk about this terrible disaster. However
I was thankful that she died at 86 and did not live to see
this since her generation had already survived Pearl Harbor
and WWII. Dad had died in 1980 and I felt very alone.

My husband, Ken, came home for lunch and we watched
together eager to learn about any survivors but there were
so few.

I had not voted for Pres. Bush but was very amazed and
proud of how he acted, addressed our country and kept
reassuring us that "we will prevail". I was thankful
that we had him as our leader and that he was not afraid to
say that we were in a battle against evil. People could
understand this. I was also proud of our firemen and
policemen and all who came to the aid of strangers in need.

America is criticized so much all around the world and out
of this tragedy I hope the world can see how good Americans
are and America is. When the chips are down we come
together. People of all races and religions - united to
fight for our freedom and the freedom of others who
desire it.

The last year has had its ups and downs. I do believe that
we will emerge from this as a much stronger and unified
country. And no matter how long it takes, we will continue
to be thankful we live in a free country, make whatever
sacrifices are necessary and stand fast, with courage
until the world is safe for everyone.

Sincerely, Joan Kadow Vendlinger/Willowick, Ohio

9-11-2002