story5673.xml

story5673.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

My day started out with my husband, Joe, on a business trip to Chicago. He had flown out on the 10th with our neighbor, the owner of a small, private plane. We had a cleaning service at our home that day, and our 5 year old son, Anthony, was watching cartoons before he had to go to Kindergarten at noon. I normally would have had the "Today" show on, but had some files and paperwork to take care of, so our son was watching TV in the family room. When the cleaning ladies came downstairs, our son went upstairs to his play room, and asked me to turn on his TV. I went up and turned on NBC to see the WTC on fire. I turned to ABC to see the Pentagon on fire. I asked myself if they were showing scenes from a bad movie, put cartoons on for my son, and ran downstairs to turn on the TV in the family room. I could not believe what I was seeing. I called my husband in Chicago to tell him what was going on. Chicago was one hour behind us, so he had still been asleep. He could not belive what I was telling him. I told him to stay safe, and to keep in touch. His conference was cancelled, but he could not get home until the next day. As air space was closed, he rented a truck to get home. Our son was upset by the events only after he heard on TV that the Sears Tower had been evacuated. he knew his Daddy was staying close by there, and he figured if 2 towers in NYC came down, maybe his Daddy's tower would too. We called Daddy several times (enough to waste his cell phone battery!) to give him comfort that Daddy was still okay. I knew someone that I graduated high school with, and also someone that I went to college with, who both lost their lives as they worked at the WTC. I watched as my son's school made a human flag today, and I shed tears for those I knew and those whose stories I have only seen on TV, read in books and magazines and have heard about through friends. I, like many others, was far away from NYC; Washington, DC; and Shanksville, PA on September 11, 2001. Growing up in New England and Pennsylvania, I knew of, or had been to, all of the locations involved. I felt a closer connection to what had happened, as compared to my neighbors, because of that fact. NYC will never be the same to me and I'm not sure when I will be going back for a visit. The lives of every person here on earth have been changed - hopefully we will never see another day like 9/11/01 in any of our lifetimes.