nmah5636.xml

nmah5636.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-09-05

I'm a Florist from Vermont and my x-husband is a captain with a major airline. We have 2 children. When I arrived at work that morning, the owner of the shop was already there, and the tv which was always on first thing in the morning....wasn't. The phone rang and it was the owners daughter calling from NJ. She couldn't believe that we didn't know. We put the tv on, and from that moment on, my life...my comfort...my sense of security...my constant sense of being protected from all the terrorism in world around me was gone. The World Trade Center, reports of the Pentagon being hit, and then a plane down in PA. I knew that my children's Father was flying, but I didn't know where he was. Our daughter called me from college in NH crying, but she was crying because he had called her to let her know that he was ok. I had a friend pick our son Tyler up from school and bring him to the flower shop.....just so I could hold him in my arms. There was no way to explain this madness to a 12 year old when I didn't understand it myself.

I no longer have the comfort of feeling safe as a citizen of the United States of America.

The people who set out for just another day of work....the people who boarded airplanes that day and the courage that they had to face. The heros in so many different uniforms who climbed so high to save so many, and the citizens of NY who united in grief to help anyone they could.

On September 12th of 2001 I put the American flag on the antenna of my car. It didn't survive our Vermont winter, but I bought a new one right away and it's been on my car since then. It's battered and torn, but it's still hanging on. It means so much to me. So many flags were flown from cars in the first year....and then they just stopped. My flag will always fly, and I will never forget the loss of one single life on September 11, 2001.