story3285.xml

story3285.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was at work in Great Neck, New York when the first plane struck the first tower. At that time, it was mistakenly thought that a small communter plane has lost its way and had struck the tower. As the events unfolded and the news reports began, we realized how wrong the previous information was. We listened to the radio in horror and then we managed to get a television channel working and saw the second tower being struck by the next airplane. There are no words powerful or poignant enough to describe the complete shock of being totally helpless and watching the deliberate annihilation of human lives. Then the towers began to fall and the sky seemed to literally rain dust, metal, papers, people. People were jumping from the buildings they were so desperate. We watched, tears streaming down our faces, as people were running blindly, through the streets trying to find somewhere safe. People were being supported, carried, led by the hand by complete strangers, who in that instant, we not strangers but friends. It was also incredible to watch the people stream out of the city on foot, in the streets, across bridges, walking like zombies.

I called my mom and dad who were at home in Queens and who were supposed to be flying to New Orleans for a vacation. My parents had worked downtown before the Trade Center was even built. My dad can remember the area before the Towers, watched them being constructed and now saw them fall. My sister called me also and told me she and her colleagues were going to give blood.

I called my mother and father in law in Sicily to assure them that my husband, a construction worker, and I were physically fine. Just one year prior to the attacks, my husband and I had taken all of his siblings and their families, on their first trip to America and in town for our wedding,to the Twin Towers. I look at the photographs now and remember when we were all there together on a bright, sunny day taking in the sights without a care in the world. As I was speaking to my father-in-law, the Pentagon was struck. I will always remember my father-in-law asking me "What evil has come to your country?" I didn't have an answer for him.

My husband called me and told me he was going home. All the large digging equipment was being taken to the Trade Center site. I soon left as well and went home to my husband to watch the news, talk to friends and family, making sure everyone was okay. Unfortunately, not everyone was. My cousin lost her husband, a firefighter. He was one of the first people physically in the building and he never came out. He left behind my cousin and their daughter who was 2 years old.

The next morning, as my husband was leaving for work, he told me that he didn't want to worry me the night before but he was going to do search and rescue at Ground Zero. I have never been so worried in my life. Ground Zero looked like a "nuclear winter" as someone described it and nothing was stable. I spoke with my husband once that day and then waited for him to come home. My friend came and waited with me and at 1:00 a.m. he came home. He never really discussed what horrors he saw there but did tell me that there were indeed horrors. He still doesn't say a lot.

It is one year later and it is still devestating. Seeing the tributes and the symbols of patriotism bring instant tears to my eyes. My husband still continues to work at Ground Zero so it is still a big part of our lives. My husband, Mario, is a hero in my eyes. Above all else, I am so very, very proud to be a New Yorker and so proud to be an American.