I was home on that beautiful Sept. morning. My college aged son was just getting ready to leave for class and my husband was home.. ..which was unusual for a Tues morning. He always flew on Tues morning from Newark airport, but this week in Sept is always the fireman convention in Wildwood, NJ and he decided to work from home. Thank God !
He was the one watching television who called my son and me to turn on the tv. I felt such pure shock and then anger.
Since my husband is a vol fireman, he left immediately and went to our firehouse. Would they be called into NYC?
Before he went, he drove to the other end of our town and shot probaby one of the very last pictures of the towers standing.
I went across town later, after I had clamed down a bit and saw the thick smoke still over the lower part of NY ... and remembered that only two weeks before , in mid-August how we had gone for dinner in a lovely restaurant overlooking the Hudson River. We had to wait for a table and sat on a bench outside and watched the sun go down. It was beautiful, and peaceful watching the buildings with all the lights popping on.
I have watched the sun go down over NYC many, many times and when it did.. the Towers which were primarily glass looked like they were glowing. The towers always looked beautiful. Not just in the summer.. but, always ..even,in Dec. They just glowed red from the fading sun. They ironically looked ,at dusk, as if they were on fire.
Now, all of a sudden they were not on the landscape, .. all I saw was thick smoke. They were gone! Oh My God!!
We , in our town, lost several people this horrible day. One was a young man who married a girl who was in school with my older son, her sister was in school with my daughter. She lost her 30 yr old husband. So sad.
This couple sat in back of us a few weeks earlier at church and they had a 6 mo old baby son.
Most of the surrounding towns also had their heartache of losses.
Now, every year from my deck, I look to New York and see the twin lights shine up to the sky.. you can't help but see them...and I feel not the least bit better than I did 11 years ago.
I live so close to the most terroristic act ever to be committed on American soil.
But, now, when I look across the Hudson, I see a new building. It has risen up to form a new landscape and there is a memorial park where the buildings stood. For 11 years , we have tried to heal.
But, no matter what, nothing will heal "my" heart from what happened that day to so many people I know.
If anything, on 9/11, we should all be thankful for our many freedoms. That is what these terrible people are so jealous of and are trying to take away from us.
What are your memories of that terrible day? Please share them with us, as we commemorate Sept .11th, together.
