story6373.xml

story6373.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I was busy cleaning my house, and while working in the laundry room, I kept hearing my phone ringing over and over. After a while, I was able to answer and it was my sister telling me the World Trade Center had been attacked. By then it was 10:30am and the television was broadcasting the planes going into the towers over and over. My mother and best friend were calling me as well, and we were all frantically changing channels on the T.V. to find out exactly what was going on. My first instinct was to go and pick up my then 7 year old daughter from school. I called and the secretary told me that the school was in a complete lockdown and there was a staff member standing guard at each door. They were cancelling outdoor recesses for the day, and the older classes were aware of what was going on, but the younger classes, including my daughters were only told that something had happened in another state and that they were all ok. I asked the secretary what the other parents were doing, and she said only a small percentage of parents were pulling thier children out of school and were coaxing the rest of us to allow our children to maintain the normalcy of being at school so as not to alarm them even more. As much as it broke my heart to leave her there, I did. I called my husband to make sure he was ok, as he works quite closely to a company that, in the event of an all out attack, would most likely be hit. He said they were all in the break room watching the television as well and unable to concentrate on working. After few hours, he, along with the majority of the nation, was sent home graciously by his boss to spend time with the family. As I watched the television all I kept on thinking was, my childrens world will never be the same again. I was maintaining a manner of calm for the sake of my 3 year old son who was home with me at the time, until I heard a report that there was a bomb found in the New York City High school near the World Trade Center, and that was the final straw. I broke down in a heap on the floor and sobbed. Being a mother, any time a child is threatend, no matter what age, is too much for me to handle. I was relieved to find out hours later that it was not true. I walked to school that afternoon, knowing by then, that most of the parents were now home from work and picking up thier own children instead of opting for the bus that day. As we walked home, I asked her if she knew what was going on and she said that a building had been bombed in another state and that a few people had been killed. I gently explained to her what I knew had happened at the time, and her biggest concern was if there were any children in the buildings visiting their parents at work that morning. My husband and I turned off the television at that point and just sat in silence for a long time. Later that evening, we sat and watched the President address the nation to tell us what to do for the next day. He asked us to go to work, and to school, and to not let the terrorists win by keeping us from living our lives. My daughter had hoped that school would be cancelled the next day, but she said that if the President said to go, then she was ok with that.

Here it is one year later, and my daughter has that day burned into her memory. We were on our way to school during the national moment of silence. I explained to her that it was at that exact moment that the first Tower was hit and that is when it all started. She sat quietly on the way to school, and when the moment was over, told me she was still glad to be in America even if we were attacked. Her school had a red, white and blue day and it was inspiring to see the sea of colors and flags the children were wearing that morning. The children observed a moment of silence after saying thier Pledge of Allegience then went to work on being children, safe and sound once again.