story6905.xml

story6905.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

My husband and I were home on the morning of Sept.11,2001. I was trying to get our newborn son ready for his first doctor's visit. You see, our first child, Peter James was
born the morning of Sept.6, 2001 and we had only come home two days beforehand. My husband just happened to turn on CNN, and as I was coming into the kitchen, I had heard him say,"Oh my
God, honey, come in here! A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center!" at this point, we thought that a plane had accidentally crashed into the tower. As we watched in horror,
we saw the second plane hit, and I think it was at that point that we both realised that this was no accident. I don't remember much of the commentary that the reporter was putting out,
but I remember my husband, Kris, grabbing my hand to hold it tightly. I remember the tears streaming down my face, and I remember shaking in terror as my husband held me, thinking that
this was a terible, horrible future we were staring in the face for ourselves, our brand new son, and the rest of the world. I remember asking my husband, "What if they hit here ?" And I
remember Kris trying to tell me the unlikelyhood of that happening, but all I could think was that it seemed very unlikely to me that someone would be able to crash NYC and then the Pentagon.
As we drove our PJ to the doctors office that day, I could not calm down, could not stop crying, thinking of all those innocent people who had gotten up that morning, put on their shoes and
drank their coffee before heading off to their jobs, only to die a short while later, never knowing that THIS morning was going to be their last. I could not believe that so many innocent people
had died on one day, throughout our nation,and that NO ONE warned them. I found it hard to believe that our government had no idea that this was going to happen. I still feel to this day, that our
government should have done SOMETHING to save those people before this happened, espicially since it has come to light that OUR OWN GOV'T knew about this BEFOREHAND.
In the days and nights following the attacks, I found myself clinging to our new son, and cuddling with my wonderful husband at every opportunity. During the days, I was in a daze, just going through
the motions as I tried to absorb what had happened, and tried to contemplate what it would mean to our future as Americans. At night, I was filled with an unreasoning fear that someone was going to come
and steal my baby in the night, and found that I was shaking in fear in my own bed as I lay there sleepless.
In the end, my love for my family pulled me out of the daze I was in. I saw that life goes on, no matter what happens, until it is YOUR time to go. Now, my husband and I try to take each day at a time,
and live each one as best as we can, knowing that each one could be the last and that life, as well as the time you have together, is too precious to waste. Now, instead of running around in pursuit of the
almighty dollar, and in pursuit of expensive material things, we have stopped putting off things like camping trips, or sunsets, or staying up late just to talk and dream. No more is the phrase "I can do it
tomorrow" or " Next year, we'll have more time" heard around our home. Tomrrow the grass can get cut. Next year we'll get a new car. Right now, today, is the time to watch P.J. discover that our Kitty is soft
and hairy, or that dirt is yucky. Today is what we have and it is precious. Tomorrow is for dreaming towards. But today is for living our dreams.