story3502.xml

story3502.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was half watching the Today Show that Tuesday morning. The phone rang and it was my next door neighbor calling to see if I was watching TV. She is a flight attendant and had just come home the night before. We both stared at our tv's in our homes in absolute disbelief...this could NOT be happening. Surely it was a movie!!! I called my husband at his work to see if he knew and yes, they had a small tv and were watching it all unfold. Then I called the two schools where my two youngest daughters were. I asked if the kids knew what was going on and was told that tv's were on in the classrooms but that they were trying to keep things as normal as possible. That was good...cause normal had just changed dramatically. My oldest daughter called me from Waterville, OH. She was to be married October 6th and after having all our phone calls about her wedding, this one was so somber. My number two daughter called me from her work...they had a tv on and were all in disbelief at what they were watching. The need to talk to all my children or at least know they were all OK helped some. My oldest sister called me from northern Pennsylvania to tell me that her youngest son, who worked at an airport in NY, told her there was a plane flying over Cleveland that was hijacked. Later, we found out it was flight 93. One of my niece's husbands works in DC and was supposed to be at the Pentagon that day but luckily, he was not there. When our girls came home from school, we all just watched the tv in such total dispair...all those people looking for loved ones just broke your heart. We live in a city where there are a lot of Arab people and I was so impressed with my youngest daughter. I overheard her telling a friend that this one young girl, who was an Arab, was her friend, not an enemy. I was so proud of her...at least she knew the difference between friends and enemies. The following days, you prayed that when you turned the television on, it was all a dream...that it never happened, but there it was...those images were never going to go away. They are burned in our hearts forever. I am also glad to know that at least my children do not want another "holiday" made out of 9-11. My 16 year old said why should we make it a day with no school...we need to remember what happened not celebrate it like we do Memorial Day or the Fourth of July.
And I believe that too...may we always fly our flags, never take our freedoms for granted, and may God bless every person who died that day and pray for their families and friends...and pray for all of us too. God Bless America!!!!