nmah4193.xml

nmah4193.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I can remember it was a beautiful Tuesday morning. I had just finished fixing my 12 year old breakfast and sending him to school. I was getting ready for work when my brother called me. He told me to turn on my t.v. I sensed the panic in his voice. I saw on the phone when I what I saw was an accident in New York with the WTC.

Then as me and my brother were still on the phone I saw the second plane fly into the other tower. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. My whole body became numb. I can't even remember if I hung up the phone. I sat in my sofa just watching thinking this is all a bad dream. But as I surfed the t.v. channels, the reporters were all saying that this wasn't an accident these were acts of terrorists.

I called my husband who worked in downtown Chicago and told him what had happened. He said that his company had just heard the news and that they heard that they were going to evacuate downtown Chicago just as a precaution.

I left to work and stopped in at the corner gas station. There I asked the cashier if he heard any more news about WTC. He didn't have a clue as to what I was talking about. I told him and he immediately turned on his radio. This is when we heard that the Pentagon got hit and that there was another plane in the air which they believed is hijacked just crashed in PA. We all looked at each other in disbelief. Suddenly, I felt so unsafe. I started to cry and so did alot of other people. We were in Chicago and couldn't help but think what was headed our way. People using planes and flying into buildings??? Who would have thought. I drove to work I needed to get some work done. It didn't happen I ended up listening to the radio in the car. That when I heard that the first WTC building had collapsed. I couldn't believe it. It was just so surreal. How could that huge building come down. As I drove on I heard the second buildiing collapsed as well. I was in complete tears at this point. I was at work and watched CNN the whole time.

While at work, residents stopped in to see if I had heard any more news. We prayed together and hoped that this would be the end. We were so afraid, we thought it was the end of the world and this was the beginning of revelation.

I watched day and night the news for the next few days to see if they heard of any more attacks. I'm just so mad that they used religion as an excuse for the senseless violence. The families who will never again see there loved ones. The children who will not see their parent(s) again. All the pain and hurt they have caused us all. I don't live in N.Y., VA. or PA. but I felt the hurt all the way in Chicago.

In the following days I scheduled a blood drive at my apartment complex and had all the kids here draw pictures of flags, firemen, police officers and hung them with pride in our lobby. If I couldn't be there I figured at least my blood will help a few people who need it.

I just hope that we can get over this enormous hurdle in life. But September 11, 2201 is a day I will never forget.

It has changed at the way I look at life in general. I make sure that theres a surplus of canned food at home. I never let my car go low on gas. I constantly check in during the day with the sitter(my mom) to see how the kids are. I call my husband everyday at work to see how he his.
Overall, I think it's made me be more alert of things.

The things that should be remembered about 9/11 are all the victim's families, rescue workers, doctors, nurses, volunteers, and the all the unsung heroes who helped with the tragic events on that day and the days that followed.

How we all came together as a nation and showed these evil people that the United States is a nation united.

We always flew the flag at my work. But at home I would only fly it during holidays. Since Sept. 11th its been flying every day.