story4266.xml

story4266.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I remember thinking, as I sat in a business meeting, why did'nt those other guys, turn off their cell phones as requested so there would no interuptions during the presentation that were to made this morning. It's just good etiquet. But cells kept ringing. Finally, there was a rustle of movement at the side of the room and the speaker talking was interupted. The CEO of the sponsoring company that had called this meeting broke in and said, "we are stopping this meeting for awhile because something terrible has happened and the United States has been attacked".
He suggested that,if we wanted, we could go into the bar area where a television was showing what had occurred. I along with most hurried down the hallway trying to find this area. I guess I followed the crowd. Finally, there was a television showing a burning building which I didn't recognize that was smoking with plumes of fire coming out of it. I asked somebody what happening.. they seemed uncertain..and was staring along with all of us at something that seemed surreal..then without understanding what I was seeing another plane hit the other tower. It was disbelief that this occurring..it was at this moment that I first thought about my wife, at home, in Akron and wondered if she knew about this. Reality was finally catching up with circumstances and I thought about going home for the first time to be with my family...a 3 hour drive. It was more important, to me, to make sure they were ok then to continue this meeting. Then, to my horror,one of the towers disappeared and I remember seeing the top of building or tower slipping into a cloud of smoke. I think most of us in that room did not believe what we were seeing.... it was'nt long after that I left for home to be family where I should be at a time like this...the meeting went on... with about half the attendance... I never looked backed.