nmah6549.xml

nmah6549.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2004-06-28

My husband and I both worked as Airport Limo drivers, and were in and out of Logan airport almost daily. I worked nights, he worked days. The summer had been slow, and money was tight. September 11th marked the beginning of the first really busy week the company had seen since before summer began, and we were looking forward to catching up financially before the long winter. I was sleeping after having gotten in late the night before, and the phone ringing persistantly woke me up. I was really upset and answered the phone only to hear my husband's crying voice on the other end of the phone. I had trouble understanding what he was saying. I could hear a lot of yelling and sirens and horns in the backround, and feared he had been involved in some type of accident. He told me he could not talk long, to turn on the TV, and that he had to leave the airport immeadiately. It would be almost four hours before I talked to him again! I turned on the TV, just as the second plane hit the World Trade Center. I have never in my life known fear like I did that day. I am originally from New York, and spent a lot of time with my Aunt as a kid during the summer at her job in the World Trade Center. It took my husband four hours to get home that day, and we held on to each other like we would never let go, grateful that we were safe, together, but also tremendously sadden by all those who had lost loved ones that day. I knew that day, our lives would never be the same. He had dropped his passenger off at the American terminal that morning and hour before these horrible day. It would be weeks before we knew whether or not the the man was a passenger on flight 11. He was not.

Yes. Because my husband and I both worked in the Limo business, we were both out of a job alnost instantly. Since the company we work for does contractual work, we were considered self employed, and did not qualify for unemployment. We lost all our credit, had our phone, cable, and gas service shut off, because we could not pay the bills, but we were able to keep the electricity on. We owed almost 3 thousand dollars in back rent, and were facing eviction. We relied on food pantires for food, borrowed money from friends and family when we could, but barely scraped by. Sadly, we were not alone. We watched many of our aquintances, and friends, lose their jobs, and many businesses go under, all after affects of that horrible day. Many of these people were worse off than us. Some lost everything they owned, including their homes. We at least were able to hang on to ours. Work here is hard to come by, and my husband eventually went back to driving a cab, and I finally landed a retail job in November. Neither job payed well, but kept us going. We borrowed and saved enough to pay the back rent, and was able to save our home. It would be almost a full year before all our utilities were back on. Three years later, we are still struggling to pay off bills, I got laid off from my job, and again work for the Limo Company, but this time as a Dispatcher. I went back to driving for a breif time, but was no longer comfortable going in and out of Logan. My husband again works as a Limo Driver, but he too has reservations about his job. Tragically, that same year, our son and daughter in law lost their son in the 7th month of her pregnancy, but in May of 2003 gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. My grandson is the best thing to happen to me since the birth of my own twin sons, but I worry about the kind of world he will be growing up in.

First and foremost, that it happened! I do not belive that any of us will ever forget what happened, nor should we. Not just because there were so many that lost their lives that day, but also so that we are all vigilant enough in our daily lives to be aware of our surroundings, and take steps to report suspisous activity. I realize that we will never be completely safe from terrorism, but we must all do our part to protect our way of life and make the future safer for our children and grandchildren. We must never let our guard down.

Yes. It was only a small one, but no one had any large ones in stock. I also put flag stickers in out car window, and a printed paper flag from our local newspaper in the window. Our flag was stolen a couple of weeks later, we have not yet replaced it. No I can't say my feelings about the flag have really changed. I have always had tremendous respect for the flag, always careful never to let it touch the ground, taking it in when the weather was bad, and when it became worm out and tattered, burying it, as opposed to throwing it away. It upsets me to see someone burn, wear, or allow a flag to touch the ground, for I see this a tremendous sign of disrespect for our national symbol.