story7160.xml

story7160.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-13

Just before 8:46 that morning, I had pulled into the parking garage and turned off the car. I walked to two blocks up to my office, after stopping for coffee, and was just sitting down at my desk and logging into the computer when a co-worker, who was telecommuting that day, got online and instant messaged me.

She said a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. She was handing me details as she got them from the news and then all of a sudden she says she watched the second plane hit. I called my mom, who worked in Melville, NY, on Long Island. Her office was just finding out the news as well and were looking for a television. It was almost impossible to get to CNN.com or any of the other online news sites.

Then the word that the Pentagon had been hit. I immediately called my mom to let her know I was OK. My office is just half a mile from the National Institutes of Health and the National Naval Medical Center, so she was understandably worried.

I woke my husband up, who is in the Navy and stationed in Hawaii. I told him the news and he went to look for a TV while I would try and reach his mother in Texas. As I made contact with friends and family, some having to resort to email to reach me and reassure themselves, my mind started working again and I realized that my brother is a NYC paramedic, along with is new wife.

I called my mom again, getting through after several tries, and asked her if she knew where Chris was. She said he was home and I asked about my other brother, who works on the Staten Island Ferry and she said she was worried about him. Well, turns out, my brother who worked on the ferry was home, but the other, Chris, was at work at Flushing Memorial Hospital. He and his wife were assigned to two different triage areas, where, unfortunately, they had no one to treat. We didn't know they were ok until much later that night.

I remember standing on the street, looking into a restaurant that had TV screens (it wasn't opened yet) and talking with a complete stranger who wished me the best in finding out if my brother was still alive.

I will never forget that day. Or the days that followed. I have yet to go to the World Trade Center and look at it. I did participate, with my mom and daughter, in a Unity Walk near the Pentagon and can still remember the sight of the gaping hole. No, I will never forget that day.