story1066.xml

story1066.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

We were up early that morning preparing to head for the airport. A non-stop flight from San Francisco to Kennedy International, continuing to Hartford, CT, on American Airlines. Me, my wife and young son (20 months), were headed to Connecticut for (unbeknownst to me at the time) a surprise 40th birthday party in my honor. My brother called us from Connecticut at about 6am (our time) and told us to turn on the TV. The first plane had already hit the WTC, and we watched in disbelief. At that time, the media led us to believe that it was a private plane that may have been pulling a stunt gone wrong, or had made a serious mistake. I remarked to my wife Lorraine, that we'd probably see the damaged building on approach to JFK. Very shortly after that, we watched on TV, LIVE, the second plane hit the other tower, and I said, "We're not flying today!"

End of story basically. We watched the events unfold the rest of the day, and she spilt the beans as to what was supposed to happen that weekend. Very sad, and very tragic. We'll never forget it, and we'll certainly make sure our son remembers it.