story3802.xml

story3802.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was at Midway Airport. I missed my flight to St. Louis and was scheduled on a later one. I was walking down the concourse when I heard a man having his shoes shined tell someone on his cell phone that "a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center". I thought to myself how funny it was that this man could believe such a silly rumor.
As I got closer to my gate I realized that I was the only one walking down the concourse. You could hear a pin drop. It was surreal. I realized everyone in the airport was standing in front of the TV monitors. That's when I saw it. I got there just in time to watch the second plane hit. I was stunned. There are no words to describe how I felt even to this day. I think I felt fear mostly. I felt violated. I always thought no one could touch us here. We're supposed to be safe here. Things like this happen in other countries they don't happen here. Who could hate us that much?
I was standing at my gate watching this happen with a group of people waiting to catch a plane to New York. I felt so sorry for them. I tried to imagine which ones were from there and which ones were just traveling in. Who had family there? Who had friends there? How would I feel if this was happening here in Chicago? I could hardly breath.
Minutes later, the airport announced that all flights were cancelled. All I knew was that I wanted to get home. I wanted to be with my kids and my family. I wasn't going to work, I wasn't going anywhere but home to hold my babies.
How very precious we all are. How very precious our country is. May we never ever take these things for granted.