nmah5588.xml

nmah5588.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-08-11

The day was glorious. Not a cloud could be found anywhere
in the beautiful blue sky. Sally and I made our normal daily trip by car down to the World Financial Center and parked at Battery Park Plaza. Several minutes before we parked, i remember having a conversation with her about fate and ended the conversation with the phrase "Life is short....you never know when you're time is up." It has haunted me since that day. We parked at 7:30am and took the ferry next to the marina across the Hudson to Jersey City (the colgate slip). As we walked along the river's edge, i turned and viewed the Towers as i often did and they looked gorgeous in the blue sky with the early morning sun gleaming through casting shadows on the American Express and Merrill Lynch buildings in the WFC.

I made my way to our building a block away from the ferry
and started my day. All of a sudden, a colleague came into my office...very startled and upset and said that one of the twin towers was on fire. I told her "yeah right", but she continued and i realized she was not kidding. I walked over to the window which looked across the Hudson river and i could see deep, dark smoke rising high above the North Tower and moving southward. I couldn't believe it. It couldn't be real! This could not be happening. Someone said that it was a small plane. All i knew at that moment was that people were going to die. Several colleagues made their way to the windows. Sally joined me at the window. We stood side by side watching that tower burn...flames and dark smoke. Some of us tried to convince each other that maybe it was a small plane, but it certainly didn't look that way. Then i said to Sally..."Its too beautiful a day for a plane to accidently hit the tower. Its got to be a terrorist". And with that...just 5 seconds later, the 2nd jet came into view from right to left, banked and crashed into the South Tower sending a huge orange ball of flame into the sky. Sally screamed and ran across the office floor. We all were in shock at what we just witnessed. I tried to calm some of us down, but it was a nightmare. When the 2nd jet hit, it appeared like part of the jet flew out of the north side of the tower after the explosion and rained down on Church street. Soon after, they evacuated us to the street. We had no idea where we had to go but we started walking. We were a block from the water when that sound started...a sound i will never forget. We turned and watched the South Tower falling...the roaring sound, the smoke and the screaming on this side of the river was incredible. This could not be happening. How could one of the Twin Towers fall? The nightmare was getting worse.
I took Sally and Maryann by the hands and we began walking north. We had no idea where we were going, but we had to go. The cell phones weren't working and everyone was walking the same way. It reminded me of some disaster movie from the 70's. But this was scary because we were part of it. After a short walk into the business district, that sound started again. Our view was obstructed but we knew what was happening. That sound and the screaming of the people watching across the street from where we were was enough to let us know that we no longer had the Towers. I thought that we must have lost at least 25-50 thousand people with both buildings collapsing in that area. But we had no idea that they imploded on themselves in that area alone. It was a miracle of nature that it happened that way.

As we continued northward, we passed the Hoboken terminal where there must have been 50 ambulance, police, EMS units setting up as a triage unit waiting for the ferry boats to bring over the injured. But that never happened...

We continued a few blocks away until we saw a man with a car playing his car radio very loud for anyone to hear.
This is another image i will never forget. There must have been 50 people of all walks of life, standing around that car listening intently to the newscaster who just said that another jet crashed into the Pentagon.

We all were in shock and didn't know what to do. But we found that even in this terrible tragedy, we stuck together and helped each of us get through. After walking for many hours, we finally were able to locate someone that we knew and we spent the night in Hoboken. I remember walking down to the pier that night and looking south toward the WTC...but they weren't there anymore.

Only 12 hours earlier, i had made the right turn on Vesey street near the Post office, went under the walkway that connected the WTC Plaza with 7 World Trade, made the left on West St, right on Liberty, left on West End avenue and on to the parking gargage in Battery Park. Little did i know that 3,000 people would die so horribly. I think a part of each and every one of us New Yorkers died that day.

There really is so much more to say, but...i'll keep that with me for now. I'm just glad i had Sally with me that day because it changed my life forever...

TIL US SG SHALE MATES431

Absolutely. I'm no longer the man i was who thought that life lasted forever. I try to do as much as i can now while i'm healthy. I don't take for granted the things that i used to take for granted. Love, Peace and Forgiveness is very important to me. My statement early that fateful morning about "Life is short....you never know when you're time is up", was ironically very true that day. So soon after this day, I made a few life changing decisions. And I'm happy that i made them!!

Remember all of those who perished that day. Pray for them and never forget that any one of them could have been you.

I haven't taken the American Flag down since.
I love the United States and am so proud to be an American!