story11155.xml
Title
story11155.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2004-11-14
911DA Story: Story
The night of 9/10/01, my son and I were on our way back to Phoenix after spending a long weekend with family in NJ. Our flight from Newark was delayed by about two hours because of the downpours we had all day. We also heard that there was a fire in the Newark Airport compound that afternoon.
As we got on the plane and sat in our seats, we had to wait our turn to take off. The rain was pelting so hard onto the plane, I was leary of a take off, and by the look on my 11 year old son's face, I could tell that he too had reservations. This was the second time we felt unusual about sitting in our seats, wondering if we should be here on this particular flight. When we left Phoenix a few days before, we were stuck sitting in our seats for two hours before we took off. There were strange noises coming from the plane as we were backing up and maintance wanted to check it out, but we could not leave our seats. My son had said to me more than twice, "Mom, maybe we shouldn't be on this plane." That thought crossed my mind, a few times but we got over it after the critical take off time. Now, we sat on the tarmack in Newark, waiting our turn to take off. We must have been there at least over an hour. I couldn't help but look across the aisle to set my eyes upon the NYC skyline. "Look," I said to my son as I pointed to the window, "there's the New York skyline, and there's the Twin Towers." What does one look at when they gaze towards New York City? One can't help it but to fix their eyes on them, the "Towers." Even as a young teen, college student, adult and a mother, those Towers never ceased to amaze me. I used to watch them in a park on top of a hill when they were being built. I would play hookey in high school and a group of us would go to the WTC and up to the observation deck, as we left, I would always look back up at them. I can't begin to count the times that when we left the "City", those Towers would always be the last thing we would look at when we turned around to look out the window to bid New York City good bye. They were ever drawing, a feeling that even my children experienced numerous times when we went back "east" to visit my family.
As a tourist visiting lower Manhattan, the Towers were always my guide as to which direction I was heading. The Towers and the multitude of people who worked at the WTC always fascinated me.
Because of the multiple delays we did not get back to Phoenix till very late. I think I got to sleep around 3am Phoenix time, 6 am New York time. I was up about 5 minutes before 6 am and the phone rang. "Damn," I thought to myself, "I forgot to call Mom." I answered the phone,"I guess you got home ok," I thought to myself, why would she say that, of course I got home ok. Then she said a few more words and I began to dedect a sense of anxiety, coverup. She told me as her voice began to break, "Oh my God, why are they doing this to us, why are they doing this to us? A plane hit the World Trade Center and there is black smoke everywhere, God Kathy, it is terrible, it reminds me of when WWII began and Pearl Harbor was attacked.
Oh God those poor people!' "Calm down Mom," I said," if this bothers you so much turn off the TV if it is upsetting you so much," I said tivializing her statement. "Go put the TV on and watch," my Mom said. I figured, that it was probably one of those private planes that made a judgement error in an accident. I turned on the TV and thought to myself, "Oh shit, Mom was right." I didn't want to believe it. I shut the TV off. The next thing I did was drop to my knees with such a strong overwhelming feeling of gratitude and I cried out, "Dear God, thank you so much for sparing our lives, we could have been back there touring and had that difference of a short 12 hours that could have changed our family forever. PLEASE GOD, stop this craziness and help those poor souls!" I contined to turn the TV on and off, I felt very insecure and was very worried about my family in NJ since they are only about a 20 minutes ride form NYC. I resolved not to say a word to my 16 year old daughter, after all, it probably was nit as bad as I thought. Boy was I in denial.
I ran upstairs to wake up my husband for work. He sat on the edge of the bed and I whispered in his ear, "what I am about to tell you, do not react loudly to it, I don't want to frighten the kids." AS I proceeded to describe this catastrophatic event he yelled out, "WHAT??!!!" I attempted to calm him down, he said he didn't believe it, then became very angry and began cursing those who did this.
WE remained quiet and calm while my daughter got ready for school. I kissed my daughter and husband goodbye for the day, and I guess since we really were not given absolute information about the situation, we tried to continue our day as normal as possible.
I ran back to the TV to watch the unfolding events, of course, like everyone else, not believing this was happening. I went to the garage and brought out our flag, and hung it near out front door. I tried to wake up my son for school but he was exhausted from the previous nights activites. I called the grade school to report that my son wasn't coming in for the morning, the receptionist knew we had traveled back there for the weekend and told me they thanked God we made it back home and that not to bother bringing in my son because the principal was letting children go home if their parents were coming for them. By this time, my neighbor called to find out if we were back home because she knew we had gone to NJ. I don't remember her exact words, only that she was worried and that she would not be able to do anything that day because she would be glued to the TV. The worst was yet to come. Within a short time, the first tower came down. Even as I write this now, I have a nervous gut, and like everyone else, I was completely spell bound. I was crying uncontrollably and inconsolably after the second tower fell. Those poor people! Oh God, the humanity!!!
As each event unfolded I felt like I was watching a made for TV movie. My son appeared in the room, instead of thinking about how I should explained what happened to an 11 year old, I just said curtly, "Jack a terrible thing has happened to our country this morning!' The look on his face was one that a parent would never want to see on their child's face. I realized what and how I said this to him, then tried to downplay and rearrange my wording. He saw the constant replay of the Towers getting hit by the planes, and the falling of each of them. He walked up to the family room wall, looked at a picturre on the wall and pointed to one saying to me, "look Mom, now they are history, I'm so glad that you and Pops took me to see them."
He was pointijng to a picture of himself with the Twin Towers in the background when we went to tour them when he was 6 years old. Out of the mouth of babes, he said the truth, and I had forgotton that this picture was even hanging on the wall.
I tried to call my Mom back in NJ to ask if everyone was alright. I got through and reassured each other. I was worried about my girlfriend's husband because I knew he worked in Manhattan but I did not know where. My Dad said he would try to call her and inquire about him.
My daughter called me on here cell phone from her school. She was crying and very upset. She said that she was calling in the girls restroom as she was not allowed to use her cell phone on campus. She said that there were all kinds of rumors being told of the entire NY Metro area being evacuated, she was worried about our family and was confused as to if she should come home. I reassured her that the worst was over and that I had just spoken to Nana and that everyone was alright. How I remained calm, I don't know.
I vacilated on my thoughts for the rest of the morning. I wanted to talk to some one, to make them understand how I felt, after all, that area was my home, I grew up in the NY- NJ Metro area and I felt this so much stronger than anyone from this area. I finally went next door to visit. My neighbor was home, unusual because he is a pilot for America West Airlines. I told he and his wife about my weekend and experience of our flights rides and the history of my involvement with NYC-NJ metro area. They were from Nebraska and Ray was also in the Reserves. He was a pilot in Desert Storm. They agreed with what I was ventilating, but I felt that they could not feel the passion that I was feeling. I bet that they were very fearful because what they had on their minds was the fact that Ray would soon be serving since he was in the reserves.
I was phyically ill and as the day progressed and I watched the ugly TV scenes and heard the confirmed news reports I ran to the bathroom wretching. In retrospect, I was nervous and nauseous all week long. That night, my husband John and my neighbor Greg and I were talking. I began to cry as I was worried, what would be next,especially for us here in the west. Would there be a dam or bridge explode? I think that the most eerie thing was sthe fact that as we stood outside, there was complete quiet, as the planes were still grounded and we were in the high path of jetliners. We did ocassionally in the next number of days hear a jet or jets go by, as we lived not too far from Luke Airforce Base and that was comforting to us.
Later that night, my daughter's friend's Dad called me to ask me if I was ok. He knew I grew up in the NY area. He told me that his sister and her family lived across the Hudson River and that his brother-in-law was a fire fighter and he returned home but two of his friends who he worked with when he worked for FDNY did not come back from Ground Zero. I thought it so thoughtful of him to call because he nver talked to me on the phone. Earlier that day his teenage son called me to talk about the day since he never went to school. His Mom waas driving him to school then her to work. His dad called them after the morning events and told them to pick up the 5 year old at day care and turn around and go home since we are being attacked, God knows what was going to happen. Here was this 16 year old telling me, "Mrs. Brand, we were attacked today, we are at war." I did not want to hear that but I knew that it was the truth. I remember thinking and feeling later on that week about our children, and their generation and how it will never be the same in America again, that our civilians were attacked by cowards, I had no noun name for them for to me, they were sub-human. I was so proud of our leaders, especially how the mayor R.G. handled his New Yorkers and the words of comfort from Pres. G.W. Bush. On Friday, the church service in Washington D.C.was so necessary and very comforting. I prayed more, yet very confused as how could a human being do these terrible things to another human.
Untill 3 weeks ago, I had not flown on a airplane since 9/10/01. As my daughter, my son and myself stood in line for security to pass us through, my 14 yr. old son got pulled over because of the metal detector going off, he was wearing pants with alot of metal clips and it caused the detector to keep buzzing. Then he was pulled over and throughly searched. That and the fact that we had to take off our shoes made me so mad, "those stupid bastards caused us to have to do this!" referring to OBL and his characters and their acts of deceit and destruction.
We got back to NJ safely, I could not see out the window to look at the NYC skyling as we were landing. In our taxi ride home, it was 6:00 am and I knew that the NYC skyline was still lighted but I subconsciously did not want to look at it, I wasn't ready to get that final blow.
I took my teens into New York City on Sat. 10/23/04.
We went by train to Hoboken. As soon as we stepped off the track, the first thing I see is a poster about support systems available to those still affected by 9/11. I pointed it out to my teens. WE walked on to the pier to wait for the farey, the first one out was not till 10:00 a.m. I saw a sing on a board, it said that the company was discussing situations with the government about the farey getting assistance, that since the Path trains were back in order at the World Financial Center, less people were taking the farey. A man behind me was discussing this with a German couple touring the area, he said, "if they close this, that will be the begining of the end." I shuttered to hear those thoughts. I finally forced myself to look at the NYC skyline, yes, oh God, that hurt, and yes it looked so strange not to see the "Towers." I tried to familiarize myself with the current sight. I never took close detail.
WE arrived at the sight, it seemed like we had to walk a longer ways to get to the grounds of the Financial Center. We went into the Winter Garden as it was cold and we wanted to get a hot drink. I was not sure if this was the same building cause I could not see the glass enclosed area. I asked a woman if she knew if the building we were in ws destroyed on 9/11. She thought so but was not sure. Then I asked a worker at Starbucks whre could I find a site to see Ground Zero. She told me around the corner. WE walked and found the lobby of the Winter Garden. It did not seem as beautiful as it was before. Why? The palm trees were there, but seemed puniier, and the lobby seemed smaller. People were on the next level looking out a vast window. I went to a security guard and asked him if this building was damaged on 9/11. He did not have eye contact and than looked at me and said yes,that everything to the water-front[Hudson River] was damaged. He pointed to the large window area and said, the Towers were right there, and his intonation was one that seemed to me that he was thinking, "you stupid woman." He also did not volunteer any thing further. I asked him how long after 9/11 did it take to repair the current building. He told me and looked away for my eyes. I asked him wherer do I go to see Ground Zero and he pointed to the 2nd level window, I said how about outside?, he said I had to go to Vesey ST. exit and go across the covered bridge. He and I said no more. I got the feeling that this guy was hurting. WE saw the site from the window, I was not satisfied. We found our way to the exit and up the stairs to the covered bridge. I tried to picture the buildings as they were but could not. All that looked familiar was the ramp that was built for recovery. There were no workers out there, it was Saturday. As difficult as it was for me to picture the area, it was even worse for my kids. We walked across the street to ST. Paul's Chapel. WE looked at the graveyard in front of the church, my son said, "look Mom here is a gravestone and it says that this woman died on 9/11 in the 1700's. That was very strange. I had no idea that St. Paul's had an exhibit on the 9/11 ministry. It really helped me grieve or at least FEEL something. We stayed about 1 hour. WE left to tour the area, we walked the old steets around wall street. I told my kids to stop and turn around and to imagine a 10 foot cloud of smoke and debris coming our way. It was hard to picture this. I again asked a local woman some questions about 9/11, she was vague. Were these neww people that relocated here after the clean up or did they just not want to talk about it. I have to say that the area was clean, one would not have known other then the work on ground zero and surrounding buildings. In didn not see the memorial in Battery Park because I did not know that it was there.
About 2 weeks after I returned home to Phoenix, I rented DC 9/11 and pulled out some documentaries about 9/11 that I had taped a few years ago. I had to relive this since I had just been there and the election was over and people I knew were still bitching about the war and Pres. Bush. I showed my teens these films, and they saw my anger and my tears and my obsession to review 9/11 sites on the web. My 19 year old said to me, "Mom why are you doing this, what are you obsessed with this?" I asked her if visiting Ground Zero and St. Paul's did anything to her. She said no, that she had grieved at the time of 9/11 and that she was over it. I told her,I HAD to come to terms with this because I too could not feel it at Ground Zero. After I watched the films it helped me to find some closure. Now I wanted to write this for posterity for my kids and future generations. I still have the flag I put out on 9/11 the morning the first Tower hit. It is folded ina box. We never stopped flying our Flag, 24 hrs. ATC, unless we had to change it for a new one. WE are proud of our Troops fighting for FREEDOM and appreciate ALL Veterans for their sacrifice so that we can live in our country and live as we do. We appreciate our emts, firemen and police.
My daughter's boyfriend went through fire academy school and graduated.n I showed him those 9/11 tapes and we all felt it even so much deeper. I pray for peace for all the families who lost their loved ones both on 9/11 and in the current war our men and women have died for. GOD bless America.
Kathleen Legutko Brand
As we got on the plane and sat in our seats, we had to wait our turn to take off. The rain was pelting so hard onto the plane, I was leary of a take off, and by the look on my 11 year old son's face, I could tell that he too had reservations. This was the second time we felt unusual about sitting in our seats, wondering if we should be here on this particular flight. When we left Phoenix a few days before, we were stuck sitting in our seats for two hours before we took off. There were strange noises coming from the plane as we were backing up and maintance wanted to check it out, but we could not leave our seats. My son had said to me more than twice, "Mom, maybe we shouldn't be on this plane." That thought crossed my mind, a few times but we got over it after the critical take off time. Now, we sat on the tarmack in Newark, waiting our turn to take off. We must have been there at least over an hour. I couldn't help but look across the aisle to set my eyes upon the NYC skyline. "Look," I said to my son as I pointed to the window, "there's the New York skyline, and there's the Twin Towers." What does one look at when they gaze towards New York City? One can't help it but to fix their eyes on them, the "Towers." Even as a young teen, college student, adult and a mother, those Towers never ceased to amaze me. I used to watch them in a park on top of a hill when they were being built. I would play hookey in high school and a group of us would go to the WTC and up to the observation deck, as we left, I would always look back up at them. I can't begin to count the times that when we left the "City", those Towers would always be the last thing we would look at when we turned around to look out the window to bid New York City good bye. They were ever drawing, a feeling that even my children experienced numerous times when we went back "east" to visit my family.
As a tourist visiting lower Manhattan, the Towers were always my guide as to which direction I was heading. The Towers and the multitude of people who worked at the WTC always fascinated me.
Because of the multiple delays we did not get back to Phoenix till very late. I think I got to sleep around 3am Phoenix time, 6 am New York time. I was up about 5 minutes before 6 am and the phone rang. "Damn," I thought to myself, "I forgot to call Mom." I answered the phone,"I guess you got home ok," I thought to myself, why would she say that, of course I got home ok. Then she said a few more words and I began to dedect a sense of anxiety, coverup. She told me as her voice began to break, "Oh my God, why are they doing this to us, why are they doing this to us? A plane hit the World Trade Center and there is black smoke everywhere, God Kathy, it is terrible, it reminds me of when WWII began and Pearl Harbor was attacked.
Oh God those poor people!' "Calm down Mom," I said," if this bothers you so much turn off the TV if it is upsetting you so much," I said tivializing her statement. "Go put the TV on and watch," my Mom said. I figured, that it was probably one of those private planes that made a judgement error in an accident. I turned on the TV and thought to myself, "Oh shit, Mom was right." I didn't want to believe it. I shut the TV off. The next thing I did was drop to my knees with such a strong overwhelming feeling of gratitude and I cried out, "Dear God, thank you so much for sparing our lives, we could have been back there touring and had that difference of a short 12 hours that could have changed our family forever. PLEASE GOD, stop this craziness and help those poor souls!" I contined to turn the TV on and off, I felt very insecure and was very worried about my family in NJ since they are only about a 20 minutes ride form NYC. I resolved not to say a word to my 16 year old daughter, after all, it probably was nit as bad as I thought. Boy was I in denial.
I ran upstairs to wake up my husband for work. He sat on the edge of the bed and I whispered in his ear, "what I am about to tell you, do not react loudly to it, I don't want to frighten the kids." AS I proceeded to describe this catastrophatic event he yelled out, "WHAT??!!!" I attempted to calm him down, he said he didn't believe it, then became very angry and began cursing those who did this.
WE remained quiet and calm while my daughter got ready for school. I kissed my daughter and husband goodbye for the day, and I guess since we really were not given absolute information about the situation, we tried to continue our day as normal as possible.
I ran back to the TV to watch the unfolding events, of course, like everyone else, not believing this was happening. I went to the garage and brought out our flag, and hung it near out front door. I tried to wake up my son for school but he was exhausted from the previous nights activites. I called the grade school to report that my son wasn't coming in for the morning, the receptionist knew we had traveled back there for the weekend and told me they thanked God we made it back home and that not to bother bringing in my son because the principal was letting children go home if their parents were coming for them. By this time, my neighbor called to find out if we were back home because she knew we had gone to NJ. I don't remember her exact words, only that she was worried and that she would not be able to do anything that day because she would be glued to the TV. The worst was yet to come. Within a short time, the first tower came down. Even as I write this now, I have a nervous gut, and like everyone else, I was completely spell bound. I was crying uncontrollably and inconsolably after the second tower fell. Those poor people! Oh God, the humanity!!!
As each event unfolded I felt like I was watching a made for TV movie. My son appeared in the room, instead of thinking about how I should explained what happened to an 11 year old, I just said curtly, "Jack a terrible thing has happened to our country this morning!' The look on his face was one that a parent would never want to see on their child's face. I realized what and how I said this to him, then tried to downplay and rearrange my wording. He saw the constant replay of the Towers getting hit by the planes, and the falling of each of them. He walked up to the family room wall, looked at a picturre on the wall and pointed to one saying to me, "look Mom, now they are history, I'm so glad that you and Pops took me to see them."
He was pointijng to a picture of himself with the Twin Towers in the background when we went to tour them when he was 6 years old. Out of the mouth of babes, he said the truth, and I had forgotton that this picture was even hanging on the wall.
I tried to call my Mom back in NJ to ask if everyone was alright. I got through and reassured each other. I was worried about my girlfriend's husband because I knew he worked in Manhattan but I did not know where. My Dad said he would try to call her and inquire about him.
My daughter called me on here cell phone from her school. She was crying and very upset. She said that she was calling in the girls restroom as she was not allowed to use her cell phone on campus. She said that there were all kinds of rumors being told of the entire NY Metro area being evacuated, she was worried about our family and was confused as to if she should come home. I reassured her that the worst was over and that I had just spoken to Nana and that everyone was alright. How I remained calm, I don't know.
I vacilated on my thoughts for the rest of the morning. I wanted to talk to some one, to make them understand how I felt, after all, that area was my home, I grew up in the NY- NJ Metro area and I felt this so much stronger than anyone from this area. I finally went next door to visit. My neighbor was home, unusual because he is a pilot for America West Airlines. I told he and his wife about my weekend and experience of our flights rides and the history of my involvement with NYC-NJ metro area. They were from Nebraska and Ray was also in the Reserves. He was a pilot in Desert Storm. They agreed with what I was ventilating, but I felt that they could not feel the passion that I was feeling. I bet that they were very fearful because what they had on their minds was the fact that Ray would soon be serving since he was in the reserves.
I was phyically ill and as the day progressed and I watched the ugly TV scenes and heard the confirmed news reports I ran to the bathroom wretching. In retrospect, I was nervous and nauseous all week long. That night, my husband John and my neighbor Greg and I were talking. I began to cry as I was worried, what would be next,especially for us here in the west. Would there be a dam or bridge explode? I think that the most eerie thing was sthe fact that as we stood outside, there was complete quiet, as the planes were still grounded and we were in the high path of jetliners. We did ocassionally in the next number of days hear a jet or jets go by, as we lived not too far from Luke Airforce Base and that was comforting to us.
Later that night, my daughter's friend's Dad called me to ask me if I was ok. He knew I grew up in the NY area. He told me that his sister and her family lived across the Hudson River and that his brother-in-law was a fire fighter and he returned home but two of his friends who he worked with when he worked for FDNY did not come back from Ground Zero. I thought it so thoughtful of him to call because he nver talked to me on the phone. Earlier that day his teenage son called me to talk about the day since he never went to school. His Mom waas driving him to school then her to work. His dad called them after the morning events and told them to pick up the 5 year old at day care and turn around and go home since we are being attacked, God knows what was going to happen. Here was this 16 year old telling me, "Mrs. Brand, we were attacked today, we are at war." I did not want to hear that but I knew that it was the truth. I remember thinking and feeling later on that week about our children, and their generation and how it will never be the same in America again, that our civilians were attacked by cowards, I had no noun name for them for to me, they were sub-human. I was so proud of our leaders, especially how the mayor R.G. handled his New Yorkers and the words of comfort from Pres. G.W. Bush. On Friday, the church service in Washington D.C.was so necessary and very comforting. I prayed more, yet very confused as how could a human being do these terrible things to another human.
Untill 3 weeks ago, I had not flown on a airplane since 9/10/01. As my daughter, my son and myself stood in line for security to pass us through, my 14 yr. old son got pulled over because of the metal detector going off, he was wearing pants with alot of metal clips and it caused the detector to keep buzzing. Then he was pulled over and throughly searched. That and the fact that we had to take off our shoes made me so mad, "those stupid bastards caused us to have to do this!" referring to OBL and his characters and their acts of deceit and destruction.
We got back to NJ safely, I could not see out the window to look at the NYC skyling as we were landing. In our taxi ride home, it was 6:00 am and I knew that the NYC skyline was still lighted but I subconsciously did not want to look at it, I wasn't ready to get that final blow.
I took my teens into New York City on Sat. 10/23/04.
We went by train to Hoboken. As soon as we stepped off the track, the first thing I see is a poster about support systems available to those still affected by 9/11. I pointed it out to my teens. WE walked on to the pier to wait for the farey, the first one out was not till 10:00 a.m. I saw a sing on a board, it said that the company was discussing situations with the government about the farey getting assistance, that since the Path trains were back in order at the World Financial Center, less people were taking the farey. A man behind me was discussing this with a German couple touring the area, he said, "if they close this, that will be the begining of the end." I shuttered to hear those thoughts. I finally forced myself to look at the NYC skyline, yes, oh God, that hurt, and yes it looked so strange not to see the "Towers." I tried to familiarize myself with the current sight. I never took close detail.
WE arrived at the sight, it seemed like we had to walk a longer ways to get to the grounds of the Financial Center. We went into the Winter Garden as it was cold and we wanted to get a hot drink. I was not sure if this was the same building cause I could not see the glass enclosed area. I asked a woman if she knew if the building we were in ws destroyed on 9/11. She thought so but was not sure. Then I asked a worker at Starbucks whre could I find a site to see Ground Zero. She told me around the corner. WE walked and found the lobby of the Winter Garden. It did not seem as beautiful as it was before. Why? The palm trees were there, but seemed puniier, and the lobby seemed smaller. People were on the next level looking out a vast window. I went to a security guard and asked him if this building was damaged on 9/11. He did not have eye contact and than looked at me and said yes,that everything to the water-front[Hudson River] was damaged. He pointed to the large window area and said, the Towers were right there, and his intonation was one that seemed to me that he was thinking, "you stupid woman." He also did not volunteer any thing further. I asked him how long after 9/11 did it take to repair the current building. He told me and looked away for my eyes. I asked him wherer do I go to see Ground Zero and he pointed to the 2nd level window, I said how about outside?, he said I had to go to Vesey ST. exit and go across the covered bridge. He and I said no more. I got the feeling that this guy was hurting. WE saw the site from the window, I was not satisfied. We found our way to the exit and up the stairs to the covered bridge. I tried to picture the buildings as they were but could not. All that looked familiar was the ramp that was built for recovery. There were no workers out there, it was Saturday. As difficult as it was for me to picture the area, it was even worse for my kids. We walked across the street to ST. Paul's Chapel. WE looked at the graveyard in front of the church, my son said, "look Mom here is a gravestone and it says that this woman died on 9/11 in the 1700's. That was very strange. I had no idea that St. Paul's had an exhibit on the 9/11 ministry. It really helped me grieve or at least FEEL something. We stayed about 1 hour. WE left to tour the area, we walked the old steets around wall street. I told my kids to stop and turn around and to imagine a 10 foot cloud of smoke and debris coming our way. It was hard to picture this. I again asked a local woman some questions about 9/11, she was vague. Were these neww people that relocated here after the clean up or did they just not want to talk about it. I have to say that the area was clean, one would not have known other then the work on ground zero and surrounding buildings. In didn not see the memorial in Battery Park because I did not know that it was there.
About 2 weeks after I returned home to Phoenix, I rented DC 9/11 and pulled out some documentaries about 9/11 that I had taped a few years ago. I had to relive this since I had just been there and the election was over and people I knew were still bitching about the war and Pres. Bush. I showed my teens these films, and they saw my anger and my tears and my obsession to review 9/11 sites on the web. My 19 year old said to me, "Mom why are you doing this, what are you obsessed with this?" I asked her if visiting Ground Zero and St. Paul's did anything to her. She said no, that she had grieved at the time of 9/11 and that she was over it. I told her,I HAD to come to terms with this because I too could not feel it at Ground Zero. After I watched the films it helped me to find some closure. Now I wanted to write this for posterity for my kids and future generations. I still have the flag I put out on 9/11 the morning the first Tower hit. It is folded ina box. We never stopped flying our Flag, 24 hrs. ATC, unless we had to change it for a new one. WE are proud of our Troops fighting for FREEDOM and appreciate ALL Veterans for their sacrifice so that we can live in our country and live as we do. We appreciate our emts, firemen and police.
My daughter's boyfriend went through fire academy school and graduated.n I showed him those 9/11 tapes and we all felt it even so much deeper. I pray for peace for all the families who lost their loved ones both on 9/11 and in the current war our men and women have died for. GOD bless America.
Kathleen Legutko Brand
Collection
Citation
“story11155.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed May 17, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/19759.