On that September day?

I wanted to take a moment to remember those who were affected by the events of September 11th.

And I want to say...

We won't forget you.

Today my "adopted" son just arrived home from Iraq. We are so happy. He will leave again in a few weeks, but for now he is home safe and sound.

I remember three days before the WTC, I sat down with the family. I told them that I had some bad feelings about planes. My son tld me "comon mom, your being weird again"
I reminded him often my wierd thoughts were so.

Early that morning, two jet fights went over our home, very low altitude, and I made the family pray about "something", again I didnt know what.

I turned the TV on, just as the newflash came up, I called my son who was still in bed, and told him a plane had just crashed in NY..he wouldnt believe me.

Took a few days to really feel again.

We did go to NY the following week, (from Oregon) and pay tribute.

After that I spent countless hours on my cell phone trying to locate family and friends who lived and worked in NYC. Cell service was not working. So, I stood outside and watched the cloud of smoke rising above the city. It was eerie.

Thankfully, all of my friends and family were later found and I did not lose anyone to this monstrous disaster. I am so sorry for those who did.

Today seems a bit strange, doesn't it?

We are so incredibly fortunate. We did have to "drop" out of the sky in Saginaw, Michigan and were stranded there for 6 days. The captain just told us that we were ordered to land at the closest airport, we had no idea until people turned on there cell phones at the gate.

It was not something that could have been imagined. It was a terrible time to be stuck in a hotel room without friends and family.

But we are here, and that was before Lyme. So now we wage a different battle and hope to come out on the other side to do the work that we were saved for, whatever that is.
I pray for all who lost loved ones that day and the heroes who went into that situation and never came out. It still haunts me.

I thought it was movie that was playing.
Thought...kinda early for a movie.
Then i started watching and realised that there was an attack. But I didn't think it was the United States, and when I realised it was shocked.

Watched it over and over on CNN all day and couldn't believe what I was seeing.

My heart broke for the firefighters who were going up and unlikely to come back down. They were saying on the news that having enough oxygen to get back down was a problem.

I hope nothing like that ever happens again.

There was talk about the CN tower in Toronto being struck or the airport at Pearson which is pretty close to me. For allowing planes to land in Canada.

They are talking about rescue efforts and that people messed up, but I don't honestly think..anyone could have predicted something like this could happen.

Like who drives planes into buildings??
I remeber thinking as well like alot of others that it was an accident until the second one. When the building fell I was floored.

My deepest sympathies to those who lost loved ones.

Lymiecanuck

It deeply affected me. It took my sturdy ground and sense of safely away from me and I don't even live there, but we are so close much like one country.

As a new mom I felt a lot of fear for his future. I still feel like that with all the new disease and biological warfare, that is probably being conducted with slow moving diseaes like lyme and mycoplasma, and then more dangerous stuff like west nile.

by hte time I had gotten to my school, 20 minutes later all the classes were watching it on the tv..it was a very eery day. But to have it be my kids first day of school...they had an assembly to announce it to them etc...I left early to pick them both up...needed to have them close .

I did and soon afterward he arrived home and we watched the replay of the tower being struck. We both said "Oh my God!" It was unbelievable to see that!

In all the shock and confusion I really can't remember if both towers were already struck before we turned on the TV or if I saw one live.....didn't matter......it was "live" for all of us watching!

I was horrified to think that anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 people may have been killed! those were the numbers they were saying were possibly trapped! 3,000 was WAY too many, but can you imagine 20,000?

Our country was fortunate in many ways that day, but the horror and destruction will be with us forever. Let us not forget! Terrorism must be fought or it will happen again!

Yes, lymiecanuck...we are like one. Every civilized person in the world felt as one with us that day.

For those lost that day...I pray for you and for your families.

oddly enough, and ironically enough, his service to the Navy ended exactly on September 11th.

It was my husband telling me to turn on the television.

I went from a happy mom getting ready to deliver cupcakes, to a mom who had to go to 2 different schools to get my children from a lock down. It was a horrific day. Parents were running for their lives up the school walkways to get their children.

Children were crying because they didn't understand what was going on.

I remember the day with the bright blue cloudless skies and not a sound up there. No planes, nothing.

Where was I when the world stopped turning? I was holding my children and crying in the school parking lot.

I hope that we never have to go back to that place in time again.

fenchbraid

Crying

Hitting "redial" over and over, unable to contact/find my husband's brother and Dad, both of whom were in the financial district.

(DH used to work in WTC...before)

Many people from our NYC suburb area missing.

Huddled in prayer group in the parking lot of our little town center.

Finally heard from DH's Dad and bro late afternoon.

Visiting Iranian-American friend and telling them they could stay at our house due to death threats. They plastered their house with American flags.

Hugging strangers.

Feeling surreally connected to everybody.

I was pregant for my last son and had bad morning sickness. My daughter was watching Arthur on PBS and Dominic was at school for speach.

My sister called and was crying.

I told her not to cry Uncle Sed (who lives in MO) was going to be ok, they just had to cut off 1/2 his foot (due to diabetes) everything was all right.

And then she told me. I put on the t.v. started to cry, called my husband to go get Dominic for school. I didn't want to let any of them go I was so scared.

I will never forget the numbness and fear that engulfed me that day. I hope and pray no one ever has to feel that way ever again

My uncle said he went into surgery thinking how was he going to make it with 1/2 a foot to wake up finding out about the towers and the lives lost. He said it really put thinigs in perspective for him.

On September 11, I was online, playing Scrabble. Someone in the "lobby" of the game site said there was an attack. I turned on the TV and saw. Then I went offline and waited for a phone call from my significant other, who was on his way to work in Jersey City. He always took the PATH train from below the WTC.

Finally, a phone call. His commuter train was stopped in Harlem, and the passengers told, "We are turning this train around. You don't want to go into NY today." He borrowed another passenger's cell phone to call me. Had he had an earlier shift that day, like he often did, he would have been there.

I still had the video saved on my email of my son and I mugging on the observation deck. I still hadn't processed the pictures we took of the trip.

Many months later, I went down there to see the tributes, and to cry. Most poignant to me were the thousands of paper origami cranes sent by Japanese school children to honor us, just like they fold them every year for the Hiroshima memorial in Japan. And the wall of pictures of loved ones lost, with handwritten notes on them like, "We miss you, Uncle Dave."

Regards,
Shaz

I will never forget........I had just dropped off Ali at daycare and the kids are usally watching something before they go to there rooms for the day.

It was showing the first tower that had been hit. I ran out not caring if I was late for work or not and went to my mom's house.

There we saw the second plane hit the second tower. Just totally amazed.
My husband was doing peace keeping in Bosnia and was not returning home for another 6 weeks or so.

That is when we were without a doubt that he would be going somewhere again.

I cried all day and many that followed.
I hope some day for all that were closely involved, they can come to some kind of peace.

He had no longer been in front of the TV for a few seconds when the 2nd plane hit and then we knew it was more than an accident.

I remember at the time how I couldn't even sit down...kept saying over and over, "how did this happen?"

I still remember standing while watching the TV...I just could not sit down. I think that I stood all day.

Amanda (above) came by soon after on her way to work...who cared at that point if she was late.

Needless to say Chip did not get much work done that day on our addition he was building...we just could not get away from the TV...sad, oh, so sad.

Time helps wounds, but, anniversaries always will always seems to open them again.

I had been doing promo modeling work that year around the city, often in the WTC..but at that time was very pregnant with my daughter. Not too much promo work to be had for a pregnant gal.

I had garnered relationships with companies there, and was working a temp job in the towers, part time. Teusdays and Thursdays.

They were always on me for my chronic punctuality disorder, should have been in by 8:30..I was always between 8:45 and 9..but I worked very hard and always stayed late.

I'm claustriphobic all my life, and never took the subway. I would take my bus line as close as I could get, and walk the rest of the way on nice days. That was a beautiful morning ..and I was running late as usual.

I guess my work ethic flaw may have saved our lives.

Will never forget the sights, smells, sounds, faces and the sheer terror that day. We were all running for our lives..after standing a little too long in shock watching the towers. People jumping, the screams and sobbing all around. I didn't think about running or protecting the baby until the first tower fell. A horrid rumbling as the unimaginable happened before out eyes. Noone thought the towers would come down. Noone.

Even then, I stood too long. Someone grabbed me and yelled at me to run. I still stood. Someone else physically turned me and ran with me for several blocks, took my shoes off..the black cloud came behind too fast and engulfed us. The screams and cries went to total silence and black. The debri in the air I wondered what it was made of..was it human debri? Looked like paper and dust. It was very hard to get any breath, I had a water in my bag that I used to clear my eyes and throat, and another man's as well.
We coughed up the matter in our throats so we could go on.

I got separated again and curled up on the stoop of a building and prayed in silence.
I remember thinking I should crawl under a car, but figured I wouldn't fit. Someone else came and we went together further North, and got pulled into a bagel shop as the rest of the debri rolled by.

I can hear myself screaming, as many were, and I don't remember what the words were, just the sound of our voices.

Friends and co-workers and the security guys I saw every week are probably gone with thousands of others.

The atrocities leading to that day, and continuing on today must be addressed globally, unitedly.. with care and attention to getting at the core of Terror, because I fear it more now than I did then.

We are not by any means the only nation who has been/is being attacked.Their blood and tears and loss is no different than ours.

God Bless the WORLD.

Mo

When I went back in, everyone was gathered around the radio with fear and disbelief on their faces. The beautiful day quickly turned dark. It was the strangest feeling I ever experienced.

The only professor who held class that day was one visiting from Israeli. He was so used to being under attack that he seemed almost desensitized to the panic around him. That really hit me hard.

I often think back to that morning because it was the last carefree moment I can clearly remember. I felt empty for weeks and then a couple months later I got Lyme. I have never been the same since.

I pray for all who lost their lives and loved ones that day and for all the men, women and children around the world who continue to die each day for unjust reasons.

Turns out her capt. did an eenie meenie minie mo kind of thing and she was an eenie and went to the Brooklyn Bridge and did triage her partner was a minie and didn't make it out.

I'll never forget the sound of the beepers going off that were the motion detectors the firemen wear, when they stop moving they start beeping so they can be located. On the news it sounded like.....nightmares....

By the time I got inside, the TV's were showing the second plan hit, and the stock market didn't open (I work in finance). Then I heard the news of a plane on its way to Washington being hijacked, the mention of the Pentagon and my heart froze - my husband was down there for the week working on gas lines! Cell phones not working, and his office couldn't reach him.

I thought I would faint watching the towers crumble and worrying about my husband and freaking that he was so far away.

We were evacutated from our offices, as we were a mile away from a military base and at that point, no one really knew what was going on.

I finally heard from my husband at 11:00 am, and he was miles away from DC at that point. With that relief,I went to the beach, watched the smoke over the skyline, and cried for hours.

A friend of mine was never found in the WTC.

Peace be with us all.

What a moving thread, and I had no idea how many people I have contact with that were/are so directly affected by this tragic event.

All I caught, was turn on the TV.

What I saw, brought me to my knees. I cried so hard, my stomach hurt....I was shocked. I held my little ones tight and prayed.

I called my husband, who came home early from work to be with us.

I remembered we saved all summer to buy the kids each one nice gift for Christmas, that they had asked for...

Derek wanted a rescue Heroes command center and Mikayla wanted a red haired dolly, that looked like her.

My husband and I didn't know what tomorrow would hold and we were all so scared, upset and sad that we decided to have Christmas in September.

We gave the kids their presents and spent the rest of the days praying for all those who had lost their lives and their families and friends...

And playing with God's greatest gift to us, our children.

I never knew how much I took for granted until September 11th, I will never take them for granted again.

Today, my husband, my kids and myself hung up a new American Flag on our old oak tree, as a memorial to all who were lost that day...

and as a tribute to all who pulled together that day and the days following the attacks to work together to help those who had fallen...

As a side note, I went to a Alan Jackson concert in September 2002. When he sang his song " Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day?", The entire audience was crying..young and old.

There wasn't a dry eye in the place and everywhere you looked folks were hugging each other..it was very moving.

My little boy was there with me that night and I will never forget him asking " God, Please Bless America" when Alan finished this song.. He was only 6 years old... and I ended up crying all over again...

I echo his words tonight...

May God Bless America,

~LymeBrat

Now whats next another plane is still in the air,I have to find my wife and check on my dad,the other plane was heading toward Ohio where my sistyer inlaw lives next to a nuclear power plant thoughts rushing through my head this is terrible.

Then the other plane is down over PA I hope this is it.

Thats where I was and thats where we are !

Never forget this deed they have done.

I just got to work, which is a few blocks from the White House, when it happened. My boss came back to my office to tell me, it was my second week.

We all crowded into a tiny office with a tiny t.v. I called my brother and mother, who live in the NY area, but couldn't reach them.

I was watching when a reporter at the Pentagon heard the crash. Soon after, we were told to go home.

I decided to walk - it's about 45 minutes from my office. When I got to 16th Street, I turned around. 16th Street ends at the White House. The smoke from the Pentagon crash was blowing behind the White House. I will never forget that image.