story3195.xml

story3195.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was at home with my 2 1/2 year old daughter, who was watching a children's show on tv. My friend called and said, "Do you know what's going on?", and I casually said, "No...". She then told me to turn on the tv and that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. At first, I thought she meant the World Trade Bldg. in Baltimore, but then realized it was New York. I watched the upstairs tv, and just stood there in shock. At that time, there were rumors of other hijacked planes in the air, and it was numbing.

As I watched the second plane crash, I thought I better call my husband, (who works in DC for the govt) and tell him to come home. When I called him, it took a while to get through, because the phone lines were all busy. He said he would leave work, and did. It took him 3 hours to get home, when it typically takes 45 minutes. It was just so scary not knowing what was going to occur next.

I then tried to call my cousins and Aunt who live and work in NY. I wasn't sure where my cousin David's office was in relation to the WTC. The phones were all busy or had a message saying that call volume was so high, to try later. I just kept calling and calling for about an hour and a half, I guess.

I decided to e-mail David at work, and was relieved to find that his office is closer to midtown. He informed me that all the relatives were alright.

When my husband came home, I was so relieved, and we basically sat and watched as much of the events unfolding that we could, without having our daughter see it.

For at least a month or two afterwards, I would often have bad dreams about the events, and was almost CONSTANTLY thinking about it, and reliving the images in my head. We live close to I-95, and it is a popular route for jets. When planes were allowed back in the air, every time I saw one, I actually looked up, and expected to see it explode in mid-air. It took a long time for that feeling to go away.