Friday, September 11, 2009

I remember

I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing.
I remember that my in-laws were at my house visiting, and it was two days before our second daughter's third birthday. She turns eleven in two days. I remember turning on the television, and sitting horrified, but glued to the screen. I remember wanting to know exactly where all of my family members were at that very moment. I called my husband. I thought about driving to the school to hug my kids. I tried to call my brother, who was visiting a client just over the water in New Jersey. The cell phone towers shut down. The world felt crazy. And the flag became an important symbol of solidarity and peace.
I will never forget September 11th.

8 comments:

Jo Jo said...

Me either. Like flag pictures as well.

ChefTom said...

My son was born 2 weeks later and I remember to fear of bringing a new baby into a world that was all of a sudden very unsafe to me. I heard the original attach on the radio on the way to work and the second, the whole company was glues to a small TV in the break room when the towers came down. After that we tried and failed to get back to work, we just gathered with our friends, dazed and confused and worried.

Becky said...

Such a terrible day. I remember being SO sick with my pregancy (Ben's) and crawling up the stairs to wake Steve who had just fallen asleep after a night shift at work. I made him come down and watch with me because I was terrified!

Science Teacher Mommy said...

Eight months pregnant with my first child; wearing exercise clothes--the ones with the scratchy stripes on the side; on my way to WalMart. NPR interrupted a story about education I was hoping to here.

I feared for the world I'd bring my baby into.

Did you see LDS.org's clip this week?

Science Teacher Mommy said...

sorry. "hear"

shirlgirl said...

The 11th of September is my birthday. My dear friend Margaret called to wish me a Happy Birthday but asked me if I had the TV on. I told her that I didn't so put it on immediately. I could not believe what I saw and then saw the second plane hit. I was horrified. Another friend who lives on the Cape had a son, her oldest, working in the second building at the WTC. He knew something was drastically wrong and told his fellow workers to get the H--- out of there. He ran down 77 flights of stairs and out of the building before it was it by the second plane. His parents had no idea if he died or was alive. They went for a walk together and prayed for his safety and safety of others. He finally called them and they knew he was safe. To this day, he still has a problem with this. They did get him excellent counseling to get him through the gruesome days, but it still haunts him. He is now married and has a new baby. He was one of the lucky ones.

Miranda J said...

Feels like poetry Jenny. Thanks for the tribute.

Anonymous said...

Whitney was the one I was worried about knowing that that was her area of work...but later heard she was on vacation in California.
Brought back some memories of WW11.
mom