nmah5627.xml

nmah5627.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-09-02

It was 7:45 am in Harlingen Texas. I had just dropped off my two kids at daycare and was traveling to my job which was about 15 miles away. Coming over the over pass to head east, I hear the morning DJ's say something about a "plane crashed.. like Hollywood movie.. this isn't real" Half way listening to these two, I come across an accident on the other side of the road. It was huge. Cars piled everywhere, apparently people in a rush to get somewhere I say to myself. Carefully making my way thru, I still hear the DJ's and again, I hear "A plane has crashed into the World Trade Center tower at approximatley 8:45am EST. We dont know any more details but .. this is unreal... we will keep you updated as details come in." I think Oh My God, what is going on? I quickly think that I should go home to be with my kids.. skip work and just go home.
I keep trudging to work, getting there as fast as I can to share the news with my husband who works for the same company as I do, Hunter Douglas. I walk in and eveyrone in the warehouse is listening to the Radio. One of the workers asks our boss if he can run home to get a TV so we can see what was going on.. since the events going on pretty much halted distribution fot the day. I go to my office up front and try to get work done.. but my ears are glued to the radio. The worker comes in just after a few minutes and hooks up the TV. The small distribution center is glued to the small 17" color TV. No sooner did he hook it up, we see what we thought were moving images of the first plane.. We quickly figured out we were watching live as the second plane came in and hit the second tower. The room was quiet. I cried out and screamed.. "OH MY GOD!" There in the room, mostly men watched helplessly as the tower burst into flames right in front of us.
This was poiniant because our main office was set in New Jersey. Our CEO's and President's had homes in Manhattan. After realizing this my boss made frantic phone calls.. as expected.. calls were jammed in the eastern sea board. We called our production facility in Gilbert, AZ and come to find out.. they were there. They were to take a flight out that afternoon back to NY. They were now stranded. We later found they just rented a car and took a nice drive back.
We watched as events unfolded, and work that day was pretty much non exsistent. I left a couple hours early that day and I came home to be with my kids. My husband followed closely behind. A couple months down the road, we were reviewing some documents from an Audit we recently had. Going over the numbers with my husband at home, I came across a paper that brought me to tears, and stopped me in my tracks with a look of shock. What I was reading was an invoice with dollar amounts and final readings from our audit. What was at the top of the paper read - World Trade Center Tower 1, Floor 96.

To some degree yes. I was not going to stop my life because some idiots wanted to hurt me and others because of the way I lived. On October 5, 2001; I took a flight from where I live to Denver, Co. The security was nothing like I had ever seen before,but it was amazing how quiet, and subdued people were. You could almost hear a pin drop in the airports. People were silent and noone spoke waiting in line to get their tickets. We were afraid to look at one another. But I flew, and my trip was great.
I later found out that I was pregnant. He was due September 3 of 2002. Well, he came late. He was born on September 11, 2002. I watched that day on the one year anniversary of the years events, as they were saying names of the people who perished. They were on the 'G' last names. My son, Aidan William was born. He brought us joy, and a realization that life does go on. His first baby pictures taken in the hospital, show him wearing an outfit with a little bear on his left side holding an American Flag that says BORN IN THE USA. His first birthday is coming up. And while others will be holding a candlelight vigil, the only caldle in my house that will be lit will be a Birthday one. And celebration for a child who brought us so much joy in our lives.

This day could have been ANY day. It could have been on Christmas day, it could have been on May 17 (my birthday)... but the fact remans that September 11 was a day like any other. People were born on that day, and before the Attacks on New York and the Pentagon and Philidelphia, there were others who died on that day as well. This day will remain poiniant to us becaue it hit everyone on a global level, but we shouldn't forget those who lost their lives.. ever. But remember that life does go on. The world is still spinning, and good things come out of great tragedies. Weither it happens right away, or years from now. There IS a silver lining.

I am very patriotic and have always flown my flag proir to the events of Sept 11. I fly it now because of the events; my brother is serving in the Army in Afghanistan. The flag will have special meaning because of his sacrifices and to those who were recently killed because of it. I just wait for him to come home.