story6045.xml

story6045.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I entered the lobby of the mid sized hotel I operated in Dallas, TX and entered a twilight zone it seemed. The first plane had hit and everyone was glued to the television in the breakfast area. No one was sitting down eating a relaxing breakfast; they were all standing, arms crossed, hands to faces, eyes showing disbelief. As I caught on to what was happening, you wondered, how could a plane make such a grave mistake, as we watched the smoke, and discussed the horror, the real horror hit, the second plane plunged into the second tower! Tears filled our eyes, we could not speak. We all starred, glued to the events that were, as we stood there, changing our lives. Soon, guests were finding out the airports were shutting down and finding out they were stranded. There seemed to be a panic inside us all. All they could think of was, ?How? do they get home to their families. Salesmen came in off the street that had been run out of downtown offices as Dallas was evacuating the Dallas World Trade Center and Governmental and Federal offices just a few miles away. Guests were desperately trying to find rental cars, bus tickets, any possible means to get home. The hotel staffs, van driver and I, were driving people to the car rental agencies, to the downtown bus station, or extending the guest stays that ended up just stuck. All the while, we stayed with the news reporters that were telling us the future had changed and the extent of the tragedies. The day seemed to pass in slow motion, so fast! The sky in Dallas was clear, not a plane in the sky when it used to be a game to see if you could count how many were in the air in their approach patterns, holding patterns, taking off, from two airports! But there were none. The days that followed, people were trying to figure out what to do, as if the next step had been taken away and we did not know where to put our feet. The hotel guest left one by one and the skeleton of a hotel was all that remained. Had plenty of time to catch up on paperwork, but how could we, we were stilled glued to the somber news reporters showing us ?Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and a beautiful country side covered in smoke and debris. We had fewer guests, and needed fewer employees. Some people in our nation, continued to work in their everyday affairs, months went by, and our guests were still not coming. And if they did, they drove, they were not flying. Travel funds in large companies, were gone! I wondered how many smaller companies, didn?t make it. The economy usually takes 3 months to affect the hotel industry whether it is going up or going down. It struck us as quickly as the planes hit our nation. I wonder, when it will come back like it was before. Even ?Before? has a different meaning now. One year later, it has not. I wonder how many died, that worked in the hotels, the restaurants and snack shops in the World Trade Center. Have they been forgotten? The people who provided ?Service? to those who worked in big fancy offices, the ones that brought their morning coffee or announced the daily special, or made their beds, with a smile?
Dallas is also full of homeless, standing on street corners. I kept my eye on 2 in particular, that were truly, ?Homeless?. People were so busy giving to our brothers and sisters left to deal with their tragedies, the homeless received less and less. Their worlds were forever changed long ago. What plane flew into their lives then, that changed their worlds. I fed them when not many did. I gave them shelter when the ice came. I gave to the Fire Department because I knew from being the niece of a Fire Marshall; they knew how to make it good. And one year later, I left and went home 200 miles away, to a small east Texas town by the lake, to find myself???..
So now as I think about the last year, how could it not effect the smaller out of the way towns that are not apart of the busy Larger Cities, it?s were some of us went to find what was really important, that?s how!

Debbie Cowen
Etoile, TX
9-11-02'