story2775.xml
Title
story2775.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-09-11
911DA Story: Story
I was in a staff meeting that morning when the wife of one of my associates called to tell him that a plane had hit one of the Trade Center Towers. I immediately called my cousin, I knew that she had a television where she worked and would be watching. I asked her what was going on, she told me what she knew, then as we were talking she started yelling "Oh my God, Oh my God" and when I asked her what was going on she told me that she had just watched, live, the second plane crash into the second tower, she was in tears.
From there we closed the office and went home. All the way the radio stations were keeping me informed of what was going on, part way home the first tower collapsed, as I pulled in my driveway, the second tower collapsed. I ran into the house, turned on the TV and watched in horror as they replayed everything, the burning tower, the second crash, the first, then second tower collapsing. Sobbing, I called my husband, he told me he had been watching from work a well and had seen all.
While I continued to watch, I wondered how I was going to talk to my daughters about this horrific day, because I knew there would be lots of questions. And there were. The school my children attend did a stellar job of handling this. My youngest was in elementary school and they essentially did not say anything to them until later in the day that way they could come home and ask their parents questions and watch. My oldest, who was a sophomore in high school, was amazingly mature about it, it seems they watched things unfold during classes and allowed the kids to ask all the questions they needed to, kind of a crisis management session. But when they got home, they still had questions. How do you explain to your 10 year old, why a country and people we have done nothing but help, thinks we are evil and wants us all dead? How do you explain that there are 3000 people who will never be seen again?
My family and I watched the coverage for almost a solid week, like everyone else in the country, hoping always hoping that one more person would be found alive but losing hope with each passing day.
Eventually you come to grips with what happened and know that in many ways innocence has been lost, we have now become jaded. But we also pulled together as a nation as no one had ever thought we would and one year later that has not changed.
God Bless this great nation in which we live and the people that help keep us safe.
From there we closed the office and went home. All the way the radio stations were keeping me informed of what was going on, part way home the first tower collapsed, as I pulled in my driveway, the second tower collapsed. I ran into the house, turned on the TV and watched in horror as they replayed everything, the burning tower, the second crash, the first, then second tower collapsing. Sobbing, I called my husband, he told me he had been watching from work a well and had seen all.
While I continued to watch, I wondered how I was going to talk to my daughters about this horrific day, because I knew there would be lots of questions. And there were. The school my children attend did a stellar job of handling this. My youngest was in elementary school and they essentially did not say anything to them until later in the day that way they could come home and ask their parents questions and watch. My oldest, who was a sophomore in high school, was amazingly mature about it, it seems they watched things unfold during classes and allowed the kids to ask all the questions they needed to, kind of a crisis management session. But when they got home, they still had questions. How do you explain to your 10 year old, why a country and people we have done nothing but help, thinks we are evil and wants us all dead? How do you explain that there are 3000 people who will never be seen again?
My family and I watched the coverage for almost a solid week, like everyone else in the country, hoping always hoping that one more person would be found alive but losing hope with each passing day.
Eventually you come to grips with what happened and know that in many ways innocence has been lost, we have now become jaded. But we also pulled together as a nation as no one had ever thought we would and one year later that has not changed.
God Bless this great nation in which we live and the people that help keep us safe.
Collection
Citation
“story2775.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed January 25, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/4787.