story20711.xml
Title
story20711.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2006-09-11
911DA Story: Story
We had just moved to Greentown, Pennsylvania from southern California the Friday before (September 7th), after a long and arduous 10-day trek across the country, that should have taken us only five days. Saturday the 8th we moved into the home we just bought, that I had never even seen before that day. Sunday the 9th we discovered my husband's car had been stolen from the secure parking lot at the Newark airport. Monday, the 10th, I had to call 911 at 8 am that morning and have my ailing 78-year-old mother rushed to the hospital (she was in congestive heart failure) in a town 50 miles away. We had moved to a state I was completely unfamiliar with, and I couldnt even begin to tell my husband how to find us at the hospital. Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I awoke to find our two of our four dogs had escaped into the forest surrounding our home... I called my husband in complete despair at work around 11 am... only to be told, "Margaret turn on the TV, the world has changed today..." I could not believe my eyes. I wondered if we had made the biggest mistake of our lives to move away from CA.
My husband worked in Little Falls, NJ, just across the river from the World Trade Center Towers. As he drove into work that morning on highway 80, he could see smoke billowing from the north tower; and later as he watched from his own office in disbelief the 2nd plane hit the south tower , the 2nd tower imploded shortly thereafter, and finally he watched the 1st tower go down The company had two people at the World Trade Center that morning (eight hours later they got word they were both okay). Then the F-15s began patrolling the airspace around his building (the tallest building in Little Falls, NJ) and everyone was terrified
I thought of my brother and nephew, a Fire Chief, now retired, and his son a fireman, and hoped if their departments sent them to assist, theyd be safe. I though his other son, a fighter pilot flying sorties around Washington, DC and prayed for his safety, too
Though we just barely moved in to our home in PA, that was the beginning of the end of our stay there. Twenty-one months later, due to political developments resulting from 9/11, my husbands company packed up and left the USA and we were homeless for a time.
In the summer of 2003, when we finally had to leave the east coast, I went to ground zero to see for myself, what I could not bring myself to see and I wept for all of the lost souls and their families. And the businesses and livelihoods so utterly destroyed.
The years have brought us back to CA, and God has kept us safe and restored us to a home, but I ended up losing my mom and those two pups along the way And every anniversary, I get sad when I remember those moments and the days leading up to them; and a tears fill my eyes once again for all of the senseless loss. I also despair over the fact that folks who werent right there will never truly understand how we could feel so deeply about this single event.
Its the 5th anniversary, and weve decided that, Lord willing, we will move back east one last time in our retirement and stay there, in upstate New York until the end. I imagine it not unlike the Pearl Harbor survivors who feel drawn to the place even after all the destruction they witnessed or experienced. There is a bond for us now born out of what was meant for evil, but God used it for good, to show the world and other Americans how we could pull together if we needed to. We will return to New York one day to finish this journey.
My husband worked in Little Falls, NJ, just across the river from the World Trade Center Towers. As he drove into work that morning on highway 80, he could see smoke billowing from the north tower; and later as he watched from his own office in disbelief the 2nd plane hit the south tower , the 2nd tower imploded shortly thereafter, and finally he watched the 1st tower go down The company had two people at the World Trade Center that morning (eight hours later they got word they were both okay). Then the F-15s began patrolling the airspace around his building (the tallest building in Little Falls, NJ) and everyone was terrified
I thought of my brother and nephew, a Fire Chief, now retired, and his son a fireman, and hoped if their departments sent them to assist, theyd be safe. I though his other son, a fighter pilot flying sorties around Washington, DC and prayed for his safety, too
Though we just barely moved in to our home in PA, that was the beginning of the end of our stay there. Twenty-one months later, due to political developments resulting from 9/11, my husbands company packed up and left the USA and we were homeless for a time.
In the summer of 2003, when we finally had to leave the east coast, I went to ground zero to see for myself, what I could not bring myself to see and I wept for all of the lost souls and their families. And the businesses and livelihoods so utterly destroyed.
The years have brought us back to CA, and God has kept us safe and restored us to a home, but I ended up losing my mom and those two pups along the way And every anniversary, I get sad when I remember those moments and the days leading up to them; and a tears fill my eyes once again for all of the senseless loss. I also despair over the fact that folks who werent right there will never truly understand how we could feel so deeply about this single event.
Its the 5th anniversary, and weve decided that, Lord willing, we will move back east one last time in our retirement and stay there, in upstate New York until the end. I imagine it not unlike the Pearl Harbor survivors who feel drawn to the place even after all the destruction they witnessed or experienced. There is a bond for us now born out of what was meant for evil, but God used it for good, to show the world and other Americans how we could pull together if we needed to. We will return to New York one day to finish this journey.
Collection
Citation
“story20711.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 18, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/7021.