email312.xml
Title
email312.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
email
Date Entered
2002-08-19
September 11 Email: Body
Hello to everyone out there.
Just wanted to touch base with all of you and update you on our experiences here today.
First of all, we appreciate all of the phone calls and e-mails we have received throughout the day. For those of you who have tried to call and haven't been able to get through--we understand. Our phone lines have been off and on all day and it has been extremely frustrating. It seems like the only reliable phone service we can get right now is with our cell phones-- the opposite of this morning.
The smoke that had been headed toward our neighborhood shifted with the wind and we were really in no danger of breathing in any debris. We live, luckily, far enough away and were able to open our windows later in the afternoon.
Ehren was home by 3 p.m.--and remarkably it only took him two hours to get home (usually the commute home is a little under an hour). Luckily a few trains were up and running out of Manhattan--just not inbound. He ended up having to walk 60 blocks in Brooklyn since most trains reaching our place were shut down. Having the four of us in one place was the most comforting feeling in the world.
As melodramatic as it may sound, one of the only things that is keeping us from totally giving up on humanity today is the reminder that we have such wonderful friends around the world. Those phone calls and messages reaffirm the fact that there are so many people in this world with the same pain and same feelings of loss about the tragedy this morning. Our experiences in Up With People remind us how small of a world this is and how many people in every nation really do have the desire to want to work together and stand on a common ground. Knowing that we are not alone in our loss is a comfort.
Trivial as it may be, an aspect of this event that is only now hitting home for us is the complete loss of a major part of our NY life. The World Trade Center is the hub of our leisure time, and Mayah and Luke love visiting it. We were at the top earlier this summer, the mall on the concourse is where we do a lot of our shopping, and a nearby movie theater is "our" theater for watching movies as a family. We always marvel at the size and beauty of the towers, which Mayah instantly identifies as "The Twin Towers!". And the only way we can convey to the kids the magnitude of what has happened is to tell them that all of these things are now gone. And when you break it down into those simple terms--that all of the people and places that we have come to love and enjoy in our brief time here are just gone--it hits home hard. Our subway lines are affected and our jobs are located below 14th street--the area that has been completely cordoned off for at least tomorrow. Little things, like how long can we go without working and making money, are a real concern. Our grocery store was closed today. Our phones don't even work! Of course, in the grand scheme of things these types of things should be the least of our worries. But now that we're safe, we don't know what to do next. The church across the street from our apartment has a huge banner that reads "Open for Prayer"--maybe that's all there is to do next.
There are so many different things to mourn about this situation that it is hard to concentrate on one. It sounds ridiculous, but do we mourn for our country? Do we mourn for the families who have lost loved ones? Do we worry about our commute to work and when our kids will go back to school? Do we worry about those companies who have been completely wiped out and what kind of impact that will have on the economy? Even more people are out of jobs now--we should worry about those people who have to live with experiencing this tragedy, losing coworkers and still being left to deal with the fact that they have no job and need to start over emotionally and financially? Or we can worry about the fact that now Ehren's search for another job becomes even more difficult. Do we worry about the safety of our city now that such a huge number of our police officers and fire fighters have lost their lives? Do we worry about what's to come for our country- not just tomorrow, but for months and years to come? So many thoughts keep whirling in and out of our minds.
We knew when we tucked our kids into bed tonight that no matter how high to their chins we pulled up their covers and no matter how tightly they were tucked in that we can't keep them safe from harm at all times. There's a feeling that we've let our kids down by bringing them into a world where these types of things happen. There are people out there in the world who are bad and we can't stop them from hurting us.
I (Caroline) picked up Luke early from school today and on the way home I showed him the billowing smoke and tried to explain things. Luke said he knew something bad happened in the city today and that everything would be ok. He said "Mom, you saved me." What he doesn't know is that I definitely couldn't feel less heroic right now. He said "It's a good thing those bad guys are goners 'cause they were on the planes, too". When we got home Luke started making planes out of Legos and said he's going back in time to stop the bad guys before they get "our buildings". If only it were that easy to fix. We did make sure to reassure our kids that even though there are "bad guys" out there there are a lot of good guys helping to save the people who got hurt. I only wish I could FEEL as confident as we sounded at the dinner table tonight. Are our good guys going to save us? I feel five years old, too.
Thinking of all of you and hoping that all of your loved ones are safe at home.
We love you all and are so thankful that you are part of our lives.
Caroline and Ehren
Just wanted to touch base with all of you and update you on our experiences here today.
First of all, we appreciate all of the phone calls and e-mails we have received throughout the day. For those of you who have tried to call and haven't been able to get through--we understand. Our phone lines have been off and on all day and it has been extremely frustrating. It seems like the only reliable phone service we can get right now is with our cell phones-- the opposite of this morning.
The smoke that had been headed toward our neighborhood shifted with the wind and we were really in no danger of breathing in any debris. We live, luckily, far enough away and were able to open our windows later in the afternoon.
Ehren was home by 3 p.m.--and remarkably it only took him two hours to get home (usually the commute home is a little under an hour). Luckily a few trains were up and running out of Manhattan--just not inbound. He ended up having to walk 60 blocks in Brooklyn since most trains reaching our place were shut down. Having the four of us in one place was the most comforting feeling in the world.
As melodramatic as it may sound, one of the only things that is keeping us from totally giving up on humanity today is the reminder that we have such wonderful friends around the world. Those phone calls and messages reaffirm the fact that there are so many people in this world with the same pain and same feelings of loss about the tragedy this morning. Our experiences in Up With People remind us how small of a world this is and how many people in every nation really do have the desire to want to work together and stand on a common ground. Knowing that we are not alone in our loss is a comfort.
Trivial as it may be, an aspect of this event that is only now hitting home for us is the complete loss of a major part of our NY life. The World Trade Center is the hub of our leisure time, and Mayah and Luke love visiting it. We were at the top earlier this summer, the mall on the concourse is where we do a lot of our shopping, and a nearby movie theater is "our" theater for watching movies as a family. We always marvel at the size and beauty of the towers, which Mayah instantly identifies as "The Twin Towers!". And the only way we can convey to the kids the magnitude of what has happened is to tell them that all of these things are now gone. And when you break it down into those simple terms--that all of the people and places that we have come to love and enjoy in our brief time here are just gone--it hits home hard. Our subway lines are affected and our jobs are located below 14th street--the area that has been completely cordoned off for at least tomorrow. Little things, like how long can we go without working and making money, are a real concern. Our grocery store was closed today. Our phones don't even work! Of course, in the grand scheme of things these types of things should be the least of our worries. But now that we're safe, we don't know what to do next. The church across the street from our apartment has a huge banner that reads "Open for Prayer"--maybe that's all there is to do next.
There are so many different things to mourn about this situation that it is hard to concentrate on one. It sounds ridiculous, but do we mourn for our country? Do we mourn for the families who have lost loved ones? Do we worry about our commute to work and when our kids will go back to school? Do we worry about those companies who have been completely wiped out and what kind of impact that will have on the economy? Even more people are out of jobs now--we should worry about those people who have to live with experiencing this tragedy, losing coworkers and still being left to deal with the fact that they have no job and need to start over emotionally and financially? Or we can worry about the fact that now Ehren's search for another job becomes even more difficult. Do we worry about the safety of our city now that such a huge number of our police officers and fire fighters have lost their lives? Do we worry about what's to come for our country- not just tomorrow, but for months and years to come? So many thoughts keep whirling in and out of our minds.
We knew when we tucked our kids into bed tonight that no matter how high to their chins we pulled up their covers and no matter how tightly they were tucked in that we can't keep them safe from harm at all times. There's a feeling that we've let our kids down by bringing them into a world where these types of things happen. There are people out there in the world who are bad and we can't stop them from hurting us.
I (Caroline) picked up Luke early from school today and on the way home I showed him the billowing smoke and tried to explain things. Luke said he knew something bad happened in the city today and that everything would be ok. He said "Mom, you saved me." What he doesn't know is that I definitely couldn't feel less heroic right now. He said "It's a good thing those bad guys are goners 'cause they were on the planes, too". When we got home Luke started making planes out of Legos and said he's going back in time to stop the bad guys before they get "our buildings". If only it were that easy to fix. We did make sure to reassure our kids that even though there are "bad guys" out there there are a lot of good guys helping to save the people who got hurt. I only wish I could FEEL as confident as we sounded at the dinner table tonight. Are our good guys going to save us? I feel five years old, too.
Thinking of all of you and hoping that all of your loved ones are safe at home.
We love you all and are so thankful that you are part of our lives.
Caroline and Ehren
September 11 Email: Date
September 11, 2001
September 11 Email: Subject
Home and safe, but scared and shaken
Collection
Citation
“email312.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed July 8, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/39282.