story2730.xml

story2730.xml

born-digital

story

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2002-09-11

I live in Birmingham, AL, but was on a business trip on Sept. 10th in Western British Columbia, Canada. As our group prepared to begin a teambuilding exercise comprised of camping and kayaking in the open Pacific, a colleague called my hotel room, urging me to turn on the TV.

The towers were just beginning to fall when I turned the TV on. News came in that a plane from Pittsburgh had crashed near the airport; the plan was reportedly on its way to DC. I lived in Pittsburgh my entire life, until 3 years ago. My father communtes to DC w/ the Department of Energy from Pittsburgh. Phones were busy, and I couldn't get through to my husband, back in Birmingham. Since my husband and I work for the same company, I left him a voice mail over the company's 1-800 system. He returned the message stating that my family was safe and accounted for.

We embarked on our trip anyway - after all 14 co-workers (some from NY) verified the safety of their families. The team building exercises were futile - we were united anyway.
We were without cell phones, radio, or TV for 3 days in the open Pacific and on small islands where we slept and ate.

Upon leaving the hotel for the trip, we thought that 20,000 people, at least, were dead, and we had no knowledge of the downed airline industry or if any other attacks had occured. The Canadian border was closed, so we couldn't drive home even if we wanted to.

Through various travel wranglings, all of us made it home by the following Monday at the latest.

The strangest part was not being in the US at the time. The Canadian media focused on the Canadians who died. It was a number that you could put your arms around. Just a few pages of a newspaper held their pictures. Like Oklahoma City.

It wasn't until we got back to the states that it became apparent - we would never hear ALL the stories, know all the faces.

My first question was "Why?" Why do they hate us? WHO hates us? Who hates us THIS much? The newspapers did a great job of helping to explain the radicalism behind the attacks.

I boarded Air Canada from Vancouver to Dallas. The flight attendants were accomodating and calm. They issued us plastic knives for our lunch. That's when the impact hit me - this is going to change us in so many small ways, too.

I then boarded a Delta flight from Dallas to Atlanta. The flight attendants were edgy at best. Ordering us to our seats as we boarded, they had actually torn the first class curtains from their tracks at the request of the pilot.

My husband retrieved me from the Atlanta airport after midnight on Sunday. I sat in front of CNN for days - catching up in a way.

In late August, 2001, my husband and I were on our nightly walk around our neighborhood. He was 28 and I was 32 at the time. We talked about the state of the world and where it was going. Values and morals of our childhood seemed long gone, and we were lone holdouts of accountability among our peers. I actually said, "It seems like a war is the only thing that brings people back to their senses and sense of patriotism, values, and morals." I can still remember where I was standing when I said it.

I pray for the famlies and friends of those left behind. Especially the children.

Marsi Thrash