nmah5482.xml

nmah5482.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-04-07

A day I will never forget...sitting behind a computer at a training session, my cell phone rang. I knew something was wrong. I ran out of the room to take the call. My mother was to fly out to California for vacation that day and should have taken off already. I was hoping everything was alright and had no idea what horror lay ahead. My mother told me that the first plane hit. I couldn't believe it. She told me that she was stuck in the airport and everything was shut down. I went back to the classroom, there were about 15 others in the room. I interrupted the class and told them all what had happend. The instructor took a break. We all logged on the the CNN website and watched events unfold on a webcam, it was surreal. The instructor continued on after a while but his voice fell on deaf ears. I was numb. Corresponding by email to my co-workers I was told that the petagon had been hit and watched on the webcame as the twin towers disappeared. I interrupted class again. I don't think the instructor actually beleived what I was saying. "The petagon was hit too!" I left, went over to my office but kept thinking about my mom and all of the people on the airplanes, in the towers and the pentagon. I drove home, a police cruiser at every intersection on the highway. I'd never seen anything like it. I stayed glued to the television feeling helpless. "Dig them out!" I kept screaming. Someone has to do something. I felt like getting in my car and driving to New York to help. I prayed. I prayed to GOD asking him to help those who needed him in this darkest hour. My husband arrived home, we embraced each other and cried. We cried for those who were killed or injured and even for those who were responsible for inflicting such evil and hatred. We cried for our country. The days that followed were such a blur. Three days of no air traffic. You never realize how much you are use to hearing the sound of jet engines in the sky until they are removed from it. I remember calling my father everyday as he made his way back from Washington state via rental car, running in to others along the way who couldn't wait to get back home to loved ones. I talked to him and kept him awake as he drove cross-country day and night.He was home in two days. My grandmother was gravely ill in the hospital, we went to her funeral on September 17. I'm grateful she never knew the evil that attacked our country.

My life has changed since September 11, 2001 and will never be the same. As a result I am much more humbled by day-to-day life that is often taken for granted.

September 11 was a great tragedy and I believe that those innoccent people who lost their lives should always be remembered, especially the heros of flight 94

When my grandmother passed away my husband dug up the flag pole in her yard and transplanted it to our yard. If we move, it will go with us. We have always been patriotic. My husband served in the Army during the Gulf War and now we hang a flag for those lives lost for our country and the service men and women who protect us.

GOD BLESS AMERICA