story20331.xml

story20331.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2006-09-08

The day, September 11, 2001 started just like any other day for me: I got up in the morning, took a shower, got dressed, and sat down to eat my breakfast and when I finished eating my breakfast I brushed my teeth and finished getting dressed and then I went to the living room where I waited for my ride to pick me up and take me to work. Fortunately I did not have to wait for very long because my ride arrived and we went to work at the library where we signed in after we arrived and began preparing to greet the patrons who were waiting outside for the library to open up and since we still had about 20 or 25 minutes left before we opened up, my coworkers and I went to the staff room where we drank some coffee and talked for a while and that was when time came to a standstill for me because at exactly 9:15, a.m., on the morning of September 11, 2001 one of the librarians came into the staff room with a look of horror and disbelief on her face.
Naturally, we all asked her what was wrong and at first our message did not register, so to speak, because she just stood there with her mouth agape, so we asked her a second time and the first words out of her mouth were, "Gentlemen you are not going to believe me! An airplane has just crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City!" Upon hearing this, our first reaction was that of shock as well as disbelief and we all just stood there-including myself dazed, as if were in a trance and before long I broke out in a cold sweat. After that I tried to speak, but couldn't because my mouth was so dry that I could not speak. At first I did not, could not believe what she had just said until she said, "If you all don't believe me, then just watch the news on TV!" And we did and that was when I saw the tragic scene being played out right before my very eyes.
At that point, all of us, myself included just stood there looking at the images on the TV screen and at each other and then I suggested that we all observe one minute of silence in memory of the victims and I also suggested that we all say a prayer in memory of the victims.