nmah4992.xml

nmah4992.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-15

My remembrance of Sept. 11 begins the evening before. I was working as a traveling nurse and living in Alexandria, Virginia--just 8 miles from the Pentagon. The evening before, some co-workers and I went to get a bite to eat after work. On the way to the restaurant, I remember driving and looking out towards the Shenandoah mountains and seeing an absolutely beautiful sunset. I wished I had a camera to take a picture of it. The next morning, I had off from work so I slept in until around 8:30. Then around 9:45, a maintanance worker came to my apartment to fix something and asked if I was watching the news. I said, "No, should I? He told me a plane hit the Pentagon, so I turned on the local news which had a live picture of the scene. A couple of minutes later, I found out about New York when they went to the national news. I just kept watching the tv and praying. At one point, I looked at the clock. The time was 10:08 am and I felt my apartment shake and the windows rattled, the news had said the plane had further exploded at the Pentagon and there was more smoke billowing up. I was so scared and I kept praying thinking that the end of the world was coming. Later that morning I went onto my balcony and I could see the smoke rising up into the sky and I could see the military helicopters flying around the DC Metro area. During the afternoon, my thoughts returned to the evening before, the innocence of myself and my co-workers enjoying some ice cream. Looking back, that beautiful sunset seems almost metaphoric now, as if GOD was saying the sun is setting on the peace and innocence of the world.