nmah5454.xml

nmah5454.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-03-05

My 10 year old son and I retured to Phoenix in the early morning hours of 9-11. We had a 2 hour delay in Newark because of the inclement weather on the night of 9-10. We sat in the plane looking across the river at the New York City Sky Line. My eyes always have a tendency to focus in on the Twin Towers, the last time I'd see them in their splendor.
I was awake in my kitchen at 5:50 when my Mom called from New Jersey, 9 miles from NYC. She was relieved to hear my voice and that I was ok after saying goodbye to each other the night before. Then her voice choked, and she began crying, "why are they doing this to us? Oh the smoke, the fire and the people stuck up in the World Trade Center, turn your TV on." I tried to calm her down and told her firmly, "shut the TV off Mom,if this is going to upset you, just don't watch it!" My Mom doesn't usually get upset, so I did have a pit in my gut. I told her I'd watch the TV. When I turned it on, I could hardly stand it. I quickly shut it off, ran to my bedroom to wake up my husband and tell him what was happening. I told him, "with what I'm going to say, be quiet cause I don't want the kids to hear." He was in disbelief,and shouted out "what???" We calmly got our 15 year old ready for school. I wanted to shelter her, and part of me did not want to admit that this horrid thing had happened. She and I visited NYC last year and she loved it. So, I knew she would by upset.
My husband and daughter left our home for the day. I forced myself to put the TV on. I watched a short time, then shut it off, I could not take it. I recall doing this a number of times. I called my son's school and told them since we got home so late from our flight, he would not wake up and that I would keep him home. The secretary was relieved that we had made it home ok.
I watched the first tower fall, and while in disbelief, I fell to my knees to thank God for sparing our lives by allowing us to get home only a number of hours before this occured.
My son awoke, and I grabbed him and told him a horrible thing had happened to our country. I'll never forget the look on his face, I wanted to spare him of this horror. We watched the second tower come down. He then said to me, "look Mom," as he pointed to the picture hanging on the wall of himself with the Twin Towers behind him, "now it's just history Mommy." Out of the mouths of babes...
My 15 year old called on her cell phone, something she never uses at school, and repeated the events to me. She feared for our extended family in the NYC metro area and thought that the entire NYC metro area was being evacuated. I reassured her the worst was over, but was it?
I was physically ill for a number of days after this happened. I found myself going to a room by myself and wretching and crying. Numb, that's also how I felt. I could no longer get a hold of friends who worked at the WTC and in Manhattan. I was fortunate, as they all were ok. I was consoled more by strangers than my family, and of course, anyone I knew who was from the NYC area was able to relate to how I felt. I had friends here in Phoenix who knew firemen that worked in Manhattan, so sorry to find out that their lives were sacrificed.

The USA is no longer physically isolated from the evil of the world, especially terrorism. We have to live for the moment, and to never take each other forgranted. My utmost respect goes out to our firemen, police and EMT's.
I realized that life is very short,and that I needed to tell my family how much I loved them. I am also so very proud to be an American.
I also had realized just how much sacrifices our men and women made for our country to keep our and the worlds' freedom.

Before the 2nd tower was hit, I got the flag and hung it on the front of our home. Other than changing the flag because of wear and tear, we have not taken it down since then. We shine a light on it all night. I love my country and have reinforced this feeling in my children.