nmah5464.xml

nmah5464.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-03-11

I was at work about 2 hours from Washington, DC. One of my coworkers said that a small plane had hit the World Trade Center. We all started checking the internet and turned on the radio to a news station. We learned of the 2nd plane and that the 1st plane was not small as originally thought. The husband of one of my coworkers was in Washington for some training, and she began frantically trying to reach him after we got word that a plane had hit the Pentagon. One of the training rooms at work has a cable TV feed, so we watched it during breaks. I don't remember getting much work done that day.

I distinctly remember the chaos -- all the rumors and false reports that hit the news immediately, especially about buildings being bombed in DC. We were so relieved when my coworker was able to reach her husband, who had no idea that anything had happened.

I cried a lot that day. We were allowed to leave work at 4:30 to go be with our families. I couldn't pull myself away from the radio and television. I was hungry for word that miraculously people were alive in the crumpled towers, but it never came. I'd never felt so helpless in my life.

I feel less safe. I also appreciate each day more. We were never able to have children, and now, I'm not sure I'd want to be raising children today and having to worry about their safety constantly.

Tell everyone you love that you love them every single day. Make sure they know it. You never know when it will be to late to tell them that again.

Personally, I did not fly a flag. I've always gotten teary at the sound of the National Anthem, or "God Bless America", "America, the Beautiful", or any other patriotic song. I'm a very patriotic person. I lived overseas for a year, when I was 12, and have never forgotten how precious it was to come back to the United States, my home, the place where I belonged. I've never taken that for granted.