story2555.xml

story2555.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

My husband, myself and our two children (Samantha, 6 and Joshua, 4) were en route to Rockford, IL where we were relocating. We were moving from New Orleans, LA. My husband had lost his job in April of 2000, had found a position in Rockford and we had pulled up very deep roots to move across the country to a place that I knew nothing about. I was born and raised in New Orleans and had never lived anywhere else in my life! My husband is actually from the Peoria area so, in a sense, this was like coming home for him. We had left New Orleans the day before at about 6:00pm. It took a long time to get the moving van loaded up. We drove a few hours and stopped in Jackson, MS on the evening of the 10th. We got up a little later than we wanted to on the 11th. We got our bags ready, checked out of the hotel and made our way to McDonald's for breakfast. I was travelling in my car with Samantha, Joshua, Gracie (our toy poodle) and Sandy (our cat). My husband was transporting the fish from our fish tanks. He had a battery-powered pump to keep the water aerated for the fish-filled water in 2 Home Depot buckets (he was quite proud of his design). We could not leave the things in the car so we took turns eating breakfast. He took the the kids in to eat first while I sat in the car with Gracie and Sandy. When they were done I went in for my turn. I remember sitting at the table eating my egg mcmuffin and thinking it was the first time I'd ever seen a TV in a McDonald's. I saw the side of the screen and it looked like a news program like the Today show or any kind of morning show. I didn't pay much attention. I was moving my entire life across the country and couldn't be bothered with celebrity interviews and cooking demonstrations. The customers in the restaurant were being drawn to the TV in and unusual manner. It occurred as odd to me, but I still didn't see any need to pay attention to the TV. I finished my breakfast, threw away my trash and headed out to the car. As I walked out of the restaurant, I noticed President Bush on the TV making his way to a podium. Still I ignored the TV. We loaded up the cars and got on the road. I couldn't shake the image of the president walking to the podium. Why was he on TV? Was there something wrong somewhere? I turned on the radio and heard the frightening news: An airliner filled with people had flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in the heart of New York City. Unable to believe what I'd heard, I continued listening for someone to give some kind of clue that this was a joke. A sick joke! But all I heard were more terrifying details of still more frightening occurrences. Another airliner had crashed into the Pentagon and there was another airliner that had crashed somewhere in Pennsylvania. I started to cry. My shoulders shook with bewildered sobs. "What's the matter, Mommy?" My daughter stopped playing with her brother to find out why I was crying in a way that she rarely saw. I didn't know what to say. So I told her.
"An airplane crashed into a big building in New York City and killed a lot of people."
That was all I could say that she could probably understand. She was silent. As I listened to the radio further the theory was more and more evident that this had been no accident.
"Some bad people had flown the airplanes into the buildings on purpose to scare all of the people in our country."
This is what I ended up telling her that day. I don't know if she really understood this, but I think she did. Later in the day (which was the most surreal day of my life) we tried to stop for gas and were greeted with a line of cars waiting to pump gas that stretched all the way down the street. I hadn't seen anything like this since the 70's!! It scared me. I started thinking about where we were going to end up. What was this day going to mean to the rest of the country? Wall Street was closed. All kinds of financial things were going on. Were we going to be able to close on our beautiful new house? Were we going to have a place to live when we got to Rockford? I wanted to be home with my dad and sister where I knew things were safe. It felt like a front line in a war out here. I just couldn't fathom what the families of all the people who perished as a result of all this insanity were going through. It hurt to think about it. But we pressed on. I listened to the president when he said that we must keep on with everyday life. We must not let this beat us or have it interfere with what we hold dear. This is not to say that it won't affect us. It affects us every day since that tragic day. But I think his message of (which I interepreted as) perseverance was brilliant advice. I think it kept our country from becoming a victim.

We were able to close on our house and our transition from New Orleans to Rockford has been relatively smooth. I pray for the families who were touched by this tragedy by losing their loved ones.

God Bless us all and God Bless our great country.