story778.xml

story778.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-06-12

I'm a United flight attendant and was using our biggest benefit, which is of course the ability to fly anywhere at a moment's notice. My sister works part time for Continental and she and I decided to surprise our sister in law who is a major Oprah fan, with a trip to visit the show. When you apply for tickets you wait on the phone forever and then when they finally answer they basically tell you the available dates and you have to say yes to one of them right then and there. I don't know how anyone plans to attend that without the flexibility that my job allows.
As fate had it, I chose Sept. 11 for our show date.
We went in a day early to enjoy the city where I had once lived when I trained to work for United. The four of us (my sister in law brought her best friend, an equally fanatic Oprah fan) had a memorable time walking around the Gold Coast are of Chicago then went to bed relatively early, as the Oprah Show is also first come-first served for seating. We were up the morning of the 11th at 6 am at least, and standing in that line outside before 8 am.
Inside the waiting area was buzzing with excitement as these huge fans got ready to meet their idol. Suddenly the tv screens located throughout the area were put on and we saw the first burning tower- we heard that a plane had hit and imagined it to be a small craft that had somehow gone off course. As we watched and listened, the second plane hit. I immediately burst into tears but no one else did. I think we were all in shock- I certainly did not imagine the magnitude of what was happening and for a moment, believed it was some kind of bizarre stunt put on by the Oprah show to get our reactions.
My husband is a new yorker and we had recently moved from nyc with our children. We lived there in manhattan for 10 years and I will always consider it the best city in the world. My son was born there and my husband once worked in one of those towers before he met me. In other words our ties to "the city" are still strong. I felt so assaulted watching the horror unfold.
The shock was so unbelievable that we all still herded into the Oprah studio and took our seats. No one knew what to do. A woman in front of me came back to her seat and mentioned the words Hijack and American Airlines and United. That put me into more shock. Another woman said "They've attacked the Pentagon". Talk about surreal.
At this point, some people were beginning to react. Obviously some new yorkers were in the building and you could see people on cell phones. My sister in law was crying hysterically though she lives in new jersey- she had recently had a baby and was just in total fear. I tend to go into automatic mode when faced with horror and so, after speaking with my husband, knowing he and the kids were fine, I just sat back and watched in a state of shock.
Oprah finally came out into the studio, in curlers with no make-up, and wearing one of those little capes you wear in a beauty salon. The reaction of the crowd added to the surreal state. Here she was, their Queen, just sitting down talking with her girlfriends. She explained how the show would be cancelled and talked a bit about not knowing what was going on.
We went back to the hotel and watched the towers fall and it was one of the saddest days of my life. I will never forget the anger and fear and pain and disbelief.
If I had not been on a leave at the time I am 100% certain I would have quit my job- I can't even imagine how my co-workers got the strength to fly. I took Amtrack home and it took me 18 hours- me, the woman who used planes like taxis and considered it my earned right to do so.