story9934.xml

story9934.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-09-11

September 11. A Day none of us will ever forget. When one thinks of where they were on 9-11. It makes us think of the ones who were lost, and how their days started as "Normal" as ours did. We all got up in the morning, and got ready for school, work, whatever. But for some of us, we never got to complete our day, and for the rest of us, our days will never be the same. Little things in our lives will remind us of that fateful day. Brushing our teeth while listening to the news, or taking the subway commute to work.
My Husband, children and I live in a small town in Montana. I am a Navy Veteran and my Husband is a Firefighter and EMT on the local department. On 9-11-01, I was ill with a stomach virus and couldn't attend work. My children and I were still asleep and the phone rang. It was my mother. She knew I was ill, and I wondered why she woould be calling me. When I picked up the receiver of the phone, She frantically told me to turn on the TV. "Mom, not now, I am so sick..." I wailed to her. "TURN ON THE F***ING NEWS!!!" Ok, Ok, I thought. I turned the TV on Headline News (CNN). I saw Tower One of the WTC burning, and almost immediately after I turned the TV on, I saw the second plane hit. Oh My God. Is this real? I kept thinking of the Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" on the radio from back in the day. This was not an accident. Then a clip of the Pentagon came on the TV. It was all such a blur. All kinds of horrifying images from the WTC, Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania field burned their image in my brain. My husband was out fighting a wildfire at the Fridley Fire Complex out here near our town. I worried constantly about him that day. He told me later that evening when he got home that they (the fireman) heard it on the radio and they thought it was an Orson Weles style joke too. Who would be stupid enough to do that to America? The firemen were told by their bosses to pack up and go home.
I still think about all that happened on that day, every day. I hug my friends and family a little tighter these days, because you never know when they won't be here to hug back. Even here in the middle of nowhere Montana. My family and I are proud to be Americans, and we will be here to hlp any way we can in the future...Peace.