story4667.xml

story4667.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was getting ready for work and turned on the TV to check the stock market. There was an image of a burning building and I thought I was on the wrong channel, but I wasn't. I turned up the volume and learned a plane had crashed into the WTC. I was stunned, but assumed it was a horrible accident. A woman was on the street talking when she basically went hysterical. A second plane had hit the other building. I was stunned. I couldn't take it in, I started actually getting physical ill as the reality sunk in. Someone had declared war on us and was using our own planes as weapons. I frantically tried to calculate how many planes were over the US at any given moment, a hundred? a thousand? more? I called my mother and told her to turn on her television. Then the Pentagon was hit. I started to cry. My daughter was in the suburbs of NYC, was she OK? The phone lines were busy. People were jumping from the WTC buildings. I saw their falling lives that had mere seconds of life left. Everything was spinning out of control. And then they collapsed. Something inside me turned off. If I took in any more I would not be able to withstand the pain. I filled every container in my house with water and mechanically went to work and did my job. It was something to do. Anything not to have to deal with reality. A plane had crashed in Pennsylvania came the frantic whispers from co-workers. Oh God, I prayed, please make it stop. That night I was glued to the TV as the videos played the nightmare over and over again. And I did have nightmares. Every night for two weeks. My daughter was OK, but America would never be the same. I am thankful for the safety of my family. I mourn the loss of all those magnificent lives lost that day. I can never say thank you enough for all the people that risked their lives to save others that day. I still look up whenever a plane goes overhead, but we survived. God bless the USA.