story10525.xml
Title
story10525.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2004-04-05
911DA Story: Story
I got up like every other morning; got the children ready, took them to school, and came back home. I worked the night before. I was so exhausted; so I fell asleep on the couch with the Today Show. I woke up a little after 10:00 a.m. to a world I did not recognize. I was seeing the television, hearing the words -- but completely unable to comprehend that it was real. As silly as this sounds, I didn't believe it. I thought what they were saying was a mistake, a parody, or a very unfunny joke. I thought maybe I had lost it.
I live in apartments; so I literally ran to some neighbor's unit. I said, "What is going on?" She told me that the World Trade Centers had collapsed. I still couldn't believe it. I went to another neighbor's house and said the same thing. It was only when a second neighbor repeated the news that it sunk in that these things were really happening, that the situation was real.
I immediately grabbed my keys, went to the school, and picked up my children. I felt it wasn't safe for us to be anywhere other than our home. I was afraid, too, that the children would hear about the attack and be frightened. I discovered when I picked them up that they already knew. They were in elementary school and had overheard the teachers whispering.
That whole day was so unsettled. Nobody seemed to know what would happen next. I was afraid to take any chances. We left town immediately and went to my father's home in the mountains of North Carolina. I figured we would be safe there since there is literally less than a hundred people in his entire town.
I remember the incongruity of that weekend: standing in my father's front doorway watching the children play outside on a tire swing on a beautiful sunny warm afternoon while, endlessly, the news spoke of thousands of deaths, of terrible deliberate destruction, of unimaginable pain and loss. It was just too much. I wanted to walk away from the sounds of the television, from the knowledge of what we were all facing; but I couldn't stop listening, fearful that there would be another threat.
I kept looking up at the sky, too: it was the first time in my entire life that I knew there were no airplanes in the skies above it.
September 11, 2001 was the first day of a new world.
I live in apartments; so I literally ran to some neighbor's unit. I said, "What is going on?" She told me that the World Trade Centers had collapsed. I still couldn't believe it. I went to another neighbor's house and said the same thing. It was only when a second neighbor repeated the news that it sunk in that these things were really happening, that the situation was real.
I immediately grabbed my keys, went to the school, and picked up my children. I felt it wasn't safe for us to be anywhere other than our home. I was afraid, too, that the children would hear about the attack and be frightened. I discovered when I picked them up that they already knew. They were in elementary school and had overheard the teachers whispering.
That whole day was so unsettled. Nobody seemed to know what would happen next. I was afraid to take any chances. We left town immediately and went to my father's home in the mountains of North Carolina. I figured we would be safe there since there is literally less than a hundred people in his entire town.
I remember the incongruity of that weekend: standing in my father's front doorway watching the children play outside on a tire swing on a beautiful sunny warm afternoon while, endlessly, the news spoke of thousands of deaths, of terrible deliberate destruction, of unimaginable pain and loss. It was just too much. I wanted to walk away from the sounds of the television, from the knowledge of what we were all facing; but I couldn't stop listening, fearful that there would be another threat.
I kept looking up at the sky, too: it was the first time in my entire life that I knew there were no airplanes in the skies above it.
September 11, 2001 was the first day of a new world.
Collection
Citation
“story10525.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed January 10, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/6832.