story11188.xml

story11188.xml

born-digital

story

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2004-12-11

On the morning of September 11th, 2001, I was getting ready to go to work as a Registered Nurse at Lutheran Medical Center. I had spoken to my husband who was in Penn. taking an antiterrorism course for the United States Army. After our usual I love you's and have a good day's, I left our apartment in Fort Hamilton and headed for work. It was a warm sept. morning and the day was progressing as usual.
After doing my usual first rounds and checking on my patients and getting report, I proceeded to begin my assessments and administering some medications. One patient who was a federal prisoner had guards posted outside his door. They were listening to ear pieces and talking about the usual things they would talk about. Suddenly one stood up and stated that a plane had hit one of the twin towers. Being born and raised in Maine and newly moved to NY, I was not very familiar with the towers being north or south. In my niave mind I thought it was plausable that a "small" plane could have accidently hit a tower. As further news was obtained that another plane had hit the other tower, and it spread thoughout the hospital, it was like an air of electricity and disbelief surrounded everyone. Upon hearing of the tragedy everything stopped for a brief second , a second that felt like forever. As the event was declared a disaster we were informed we could not leave the hospital until more information was obtained as to how many victims would be brought to our hospital for trearment. With a mad dash we discharged patients who were stable enough and well enough to go home, in an attempt to make room for the many expected patients we would be recieving.
In my own mind I kept thinking how my parents who lived in maine would be worrying. With my brother living in D.C. and my sister living in Long Island and myself in Brooklyn, I knew my parents had to be frantic. Especially after learning that a plane had also gone down at the Pentagon, I asked my boss if there was anyway to make a long distance call to maine. I told her it would only be a couple of minutes. She was able to arrange the call for me, God bless her soul. After a few minutes of trying to calm down my mother and let her know that I was all right, I quickly called my husband on his cell phone to make sure he was ok as I had just learned that a plane had also gone down in Pennsylvania. He was and had told me that they were in the middle of a class about terrorists when a picture of Bin Laden was up on the screen when they heard of the attacks. I told him I did not know when I would be able to leave work but i would try to call him when I had a chance.
Trying to prepare for what might come kept us busy , although we never strayed too far from a tv. Watching the towers fall from the physical therapists window,is something I will never forget. I felt like I was in a dream , a very bad dream. I felt that what i was watching was not real, It couldn't be. When we were told we could not leave I felt a sense of relief, since at least at work I would have other people around and would not have to go home alone at a military base. What better target. When things began to quiet down a bit and it was becoming quite apparent that we would not be getting many victims, a sense of reality started to set in at the immense tragedy that had occurred. When we were finally allowed to leave the hospital, I knew I would not be getting much sleep that night. Although we lived only 3 miles form my work it took 45 minutes to get home after being stopped 4 times for security checks and finally making it to the gate. When at the gate the MP's who i knew and who new me were on a hightened state of security. Ironically, it was a relief when they had me step out so they could check my car.
Finally making it to the apartment and taking a shower and trying to relax I couldn't help but sit and watch the news all night long. I felt that if I watched it enough it might some how make sense to me how some one could do this. To this day I still dont understand and know I never will. After speaking to my husband several times throughout the night and the next morning, he drove up and came to get me to take me back with him so he could finish his class. Somehow I felt that sitting in a hotel room so far away was better then being in the midst of things.
After finally going back home and trying to get on with our lives, I will never forget the scenes I saw and will never forget the smell in the air that lingered for so long. If there is one good thing that come out of this tragedy its the way our country came together in such a time. I am very proud to be an American.