"Thank you, Oh Lord, for giving me the power to control my pain" Posts: 59 | From Missouri | Registered: Sep 2006
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Nal
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I was living in VA at the time. My husband was in DC around the Pentagon for meetings when this happened. I never panicked so much in my life because I couldn't get ahold of him, didnt know where he was, etc.
God Bless America!
Nancy
-------------------- Life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you respond to it!
-Chuck Swindoll Posts: 1594 | From Colorado | Registered: Jan 2005
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I was at the eye doctors for a repair of a retinal tear. I happened to see the TV in the waiting room and thought it was a movie.
It took me a few minutes to realize it was for real, when the plane hit the 2nd tower.
I have two foster brothers working in the area and was relieved to hear they were OK, though quite shaken up.
Our dauther had just moved to NY to be a Nanny for a family who lost some good friends that day.
God rest the souls of those lost that day and bless their families. And God protect and bless the USA.
-------------------- Virgil and Mary Posts: 58 | From Wisconsin | Registered: Jul 2006
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lymednva
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I was still teaching school, for another week, and there was a TV on where the teachers could go and see what was going on. By noon the parents were all checking the kids out of school, but we were told by the administration not to tell them anything was going on.
I was a sixth grade teacher and they were imagining things as bad as, if not worse than what happened. Finally we convinced the principal to come and talk to the upper grades so she came and told them about NYC and that now all the airports were closed in the country so it couldn't happen again.
We had a lot of military families in the neighborhood, which is why it was so sensitive.
After having the 12th off from school I learned on the 13th that the father of a former student had an office in the Pentagon that was blown up, but he was not in it at the time. I never even thought about him because when I had the son the dad worked in MD.
On learning this I went into the sixth grade sister's classroom and went to her desk and she got up and we just stood and hugged each other. We had become very close to each other.
My older son lost his college roommate who was working in the WTC. My son knew he worked on Wall St., but wasn't aware it was in the WTC, so he kept trying to call him all day. He finally reached his parents that night, but they were still holding out hope. He was killed - an only child. Rest in peace, Greg.
The good news that came from that day was my son met his wife as a result of it all. They were teaching in the same school in Orlando, FL, and she had gone to college at Queens College, he went to Rutgers, giving them both a NYC connection. She started a fund for the kids to raise money for NYC and he got involved with her on it.
Now they live in NYC, and he teaches in the South Bronx. She has gone back to school this fall.
-------------------- Lymednva Posts: 2407 | From over the river and through the woods | Registered: Apr 2006
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heiwalove
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i was in lower manhattan, on my way to class. i saw it all happen right in front of my eyes. one of the scariest days of my life.
may they all rest in peace. i will never forget.
i love my city.
i would like to dedicate this sept 11 not only to those who perished on our soil, but to the untold number of innocent dead in iraq, afghanistan, palestine, and lebanon.
posted
What powerful stories above; each one touched my heart so much.
I was home in bed lisening to the radio when the LIVE news came on. I rushed to tv to CNN and was watching things. I woke hubby up before the 2nd plane hit.
I was glued to the tv the next week! Still so hard to comprehand all the hatred those people had them to do this to almost 3,000 innocent folks!
Remembering all 9-11 victims, their families, co-workers, and extended family/friends.
May they rest in peace. GOD BLESS THEM ALL & OUR PRECIOUS AMERICA!
Heather, that was touching remembering the innocent people in the 4 countries you listed! Bettyg
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kelmo
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I woke to the radio saying that a plane had hit the WTC, and woke my son. My daughter was just getting up...we turned on the TV and watched the second plane hit. Our stomachs were in knots.
I am a crossing guard at the local elementary school and had to go to work shortly after both towers fell.
I called my cousin, who was a writer in NYC. He had an interview that day to return as a writer to SNL. I wasn't sure where he lived in relation to the towers. Turned out I woke him up. He was on the west side and hadn't heard a thing.
After taking my kids to school (boy talk about numb), I had to go to my corner and pretend that I wasn't a wreck. The planes that normally pass over me were not there. The jets from Luke AFB were making sweeps around the city.
My sister called to tell me that my niece had been on the observation deck of the WTC the day before. They had breakfast in the restaurant up at the top and it saddened her to know that most of those people didn't make it.
After 24 hours of the revolving footage on television, we had emotional overload. I went to the video store to get something light to watch, and the place was packed with people who had the same feeling...we needed a break.
Nine months later, we traveled as a family to NYC and arrived a day after the last remnant was removed. It was a very emotional experience and brought us back to the pain of the Oklahoma City bombing site that we had visited years before. (My husband is from Oklahoma). But, this was ten times the scale of loss.
We then took a train to DC and saw construction on the Pentagon. The train also went through PA, so I guess we touched all three sites.
Every year, on my crossing corner, I wear a shirt in memory and fly the flag. This one act has created so much loss, here and abroad, as someone mentioned. I miss seeing the flags on cars as the drive by.
To any and all of you who lost someone in connection with these terrorist acts, my heart and prayers are with you, and we truly should NEVER FORGET. Posts: 2903 | From AZ | Registered: Feb 2006
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lymemomtooo
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Tutu, I was a substitute teacher at the time but was not working that day..Got my youngest on the bus and was sipping tea while I watched NBC..
It was so powerful and demonic at the same time..I was mostly riveted to the tv all day..The coverage started very soon after the first plane hit..
I was so afraid for the people on the planes and in the WTC and wondered what horror they must have had in the last seconds.
Tears streamed down my face when the collapses occured because I was certain that some of those excaping and the rescue personal would now perish.
I am on a committe to do an annual festival for our community..We vary the theme each year and in Feb 2001, had chosen to honor all service and support personnel in our community from all wars and peace time service. It was one month after Sept 11.
It gave our community an opportunity to heal. We had a few thousand come..Many more than usual. WE had the walls filled with hundreds of photos of veterans from our extended area. A nearby community joined in and it was an impressive display. County and local veterans organizations also participated.
Few dry eyes made it thru. We did not highlight anything about Sept 11 but it gave many an opportunity to heal from it and from the damage from other wars.
A son came up to me and gave me a hug..He said it was the first time since WWII that his dad had ever talked about the war and had now opened up and told some of his story..
A similiar situation occured with a Vietnam Vet's family.
While off the story line some, this is how our community got beyond some of the horrors of 9/11 and we were all very re-committed to honoring our military personnel.
Posts: 2360 | From SE PA | Registered: Mar 2004
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MagicAcorn
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In September of 1981 I stood atop of the US Arizona in tears for an event that happened 40 years prior and before I was even born, and yet the memory still tugged at the heartstrings of countless millions. December 7th defined my parents generation, and now September 11th has defined ours.
I've become a different person as a result of what happened on that crisp, beautiful, sunny summer day. The resolve of my fellow New Yorkers has proven countless times over that you can't keep a good man/woman/or city down.
I LOVE NEW YORK!!
G-d Bless America, Rudolph Guiliani, George Pataki, the citizens of New York, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania.
-------------------- Posts: 1279 | From In hiding | Registered: Feb 2006
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sometimesdilly
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I was at work at the Tracing Center of the American Red Cross (tracing means to reconnect people during times of war and the aftermath).
We had no access to TV all morning. Everyone, staff and volunteers gathered in front of computers to try to read the latest news, or by the one tiny barely working radio someone kept under her desk, or just in small groups silent or crying.
Volunteers left when they chose. At the Red Cross, staff doesn't get to leave when there is a crisis. That day and over the next weeks, all work of every other kind ceased, and EVERYONE worked to help.
I am so glad I saw first-hand how my fellow Americans responded, including the unending lines of people who came to the bldg to donate blood, and the many thousands and thousands of people who called- I spoke to hundreds myself- who PLED to be allowed to help in anyway they could.
I remember a lot about that day, much of it of course extremely painful, but it was the profound feeling of unity, of being there for one another that I hold closest to my heart. Would that we Americans could all find a way to return to that knowledge again without being prompted by horror.
And would that we could find a way to protect our our country without our fellow human beings on this planet being subjected to the daily horror of war. Having worked so closely with and for war's victims and seeing how war and violence affects lives even 50 years later (your story was very familiar to me LymeMomToo), I say, there must be another way.
Peace (especially to you Heather, since you bear the heavy burden of witness. -- Dilly
Posts: 2507 | From lost in the maze | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
I was attending a training session in Alexandria and heard the plane hit the Pentagon. My husband, who worked at the State Department at the time, was home with our daughter to take her to one of her many doctor visits (post tick exposure, pre-diagnosis). His office was not in the main state building, but one that had a view many declared was one of the best in the city and included the Pentagon. The person who was in his office that day saw the plane. He left a very haunting message on our answering machine after it happened.
All I could think about was getting to my family; and knowing that traffic would be gridlocked on main roads, I carefully wound my way through the back roads, listening to the reports and looking at the perfectly blue and peaceful sky. It was surreal. After we were all united at home, that beautiful sky and the unusual stillness were disrupted by the military planes flying over. None of us knew whether more assualt was on the way. But, whatever happened, what I cared most about was that we (family) were together.
It wasn't until later that night, I am ashamed to say, that I gave real thought to the people who hadn't made it home and to those who were waiting for them.
Answering this post has made me reflect on my instincts and actions that day. I have to wonder if I had been in the vicinity of the destruction, would I have put the needs of those around me first. I would like to think that I would have; but I will always wonder....
Posts: 422 | From Herndon, Virginia | Registered: Oct 2005
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lymemomtooo
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lymeout-you had to protect your family..I don't think any of us that weren't involved know how we would have reacted..And I pray we never have to find out..
It is something that no one can predict..You did what you had to do to possibly protect your loved ones and that was important.
We live close to an atomic plant. And there has been much speculation regarding it being a target. I do not know how brave or heroic I would be if it did become a target but my family would most likely come first. But we have a local saying, just bend over and kiss it goodbye..I tried to clean this up..
Sorry toots, I strayed again..lmt
Posts: 2360 | From SE PA | Registered: Mar 2004
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savebabe
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My mother woke me up and I called my husband whose family worked in the city. Everybody was safe but very scared. God Bless those who were lost. May they rest in peace.
Posts: 1603 | From ny | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
I slept through 9/11. Why? Because of Lyme.
My bull's eye rash showed up the previous Thursday. Symptoms of fatigue and joint pain had started earlier that week. I was hit or miss with going to work in those early days. The previous day, 9/10, my department went into NYC to do the Circle Line tour on the Hudson. I was too sick to go, but that would have been so odd to have made that trip, and then what happened the next day unfold.
I awoke that Tuesday about 10:45 in the morning. I turned on the radio as I usually do, and was perplexed. It was a talk show, and they were talking to someone in some building. It sounded dire. I instinctively turned on the TV, and there it all was. It had all happened while I was sleeping. I am grateful for that.
Posts: 90 | From New Jersey | Registered: Nov 2005
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I was 8 months pregnant with my 3 year old in a highchair watching cartoons. He said, "Mommy, my shows went away." I looked and saw the cable channels were all blue screened with only one channel available -- a news channel showing live footage of the trade centers after the first plane hit. I was so stunned as I watched the second plane bank and hit the second building that I couldn't turn it off before my son saw it.
We live on the Hudson River in New York and shortly after the planes hit, we watched the fighter planes flying at top speed and low down over the Tappanzee Bridge and following the path of the river towards the city. Our little house shook from the planes over head. They were also widening the highway near our house and were detinating dynamite charges to blast rock. We ran and flagged the construction workers to get them to stop. Then we invited them into our house to watch the footage. Big burly, men... crying with me and my three year old and my pregnant belly.
My husband was driving into NYC and called me from the Bronx when he heard that plane one had hit. I begged him to turn around and come home. We had had one of the only nasty arguments of our 25 years together the night before, because he was to fly out of LaGuardia at 8:30 a.m. on 9/11 to go to a film festival. I asked him not to go, because I thought the baby was going to come early. I'd never asked him not to go on a business flight in the entire history of our marriage. He didn't go. Thank God. He made it home in record time and was stunned to find me with a livingroom full of tearful construction workers.
We saw ash-covered grey people in shock stagger off trains at our hometown station. We tried to help them figure out where they wanted to go. We have one friend who rode a mountain bike from Wall Street up through Harlem and into Westchester via backroads before the shock work off and he was able to call his wife to come and get him.
we lost friends; we have friends with respiratory diseases and cancer as a result; we have friends who have joined Police and Fire Departments out of a sense of duty and patriotism.
My then-3-now 9 year old has never forgotten the images. He saw crushed fire engines on tv, which broke his little heart. He learned what "flags at half mast" meant... I guess after that day, we all learned what it meant.
God bless all the people who respect life and possess the cultural curiosity to let people live it in their own way. Protect us all from the escalation of fanatic fundamentalism everywhere.
Peace,
wiserforit
Posts: 508 | From Banks of the Hudson | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
Oh gosh...odd wording retraction: I was NOT "8 months pregnant with my three year old watching cartoons...."! That would have been a really big belly! I WAS "8 months pregnant AND my three year old was watching cartoons"!
By the way, said belly-baby was born late -- 2 months later to the day on 12/11/01.
wiserforit
Posts: 508 | From Banks of the Hudson | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
I was riding on the hway and when the news was broadcast over the radio, everyone, and I mean everyone, pulled over at the same time to listen. It was a very eerie sight, I can tell you.
-------------------- -Em
"Thank you, Oh Lord, for giving me the power to control my pain" Posts: 59 | From Missouri | Registered: Sep 2006
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Aniek
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I was walking through downtown DC on my way to work. I actually think I was down the street from the White House when the first impact happened.
Our office closed before the towers fell. On my walk home, I stopped and turned at a traffic circle on 16th Street. I looked down 16th Street at the White House and saw smoke from the Pentagon blowing behind it. That was the only moment I did not feel safe.
I spent much of the day trying to reach my family in NY. Everybody was fine. But as the day continued, I knew that somebody in my life had been lost. I had a connection to every city involved, and my heart just told me. I spent the next days waiting to discover.
It was a few days after, I was reading the newspaper while taking the bus to work. They were profiling victims at the Pentagon and I recognized Paul's picture.
Paul was a classmate from graduate school. Somewhere more than an acquaintance, although not really a friend. But he was one of the nicest people I had ever met. And I am sure that he was on the path to being the U.S. Surgeon General.
Paul was on Flight 77. He was on his way to Los Angeles to speak at a conference on juvenile obesity.
-------------------- "When there is pain, there are no words." - Toni Morrison Posts: 4711 | From Washington, DC | Registered: Mar 2004
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I WAS THERE... You say you will never forget where you were when you heard the news On September 11, 2001. Neither will I. I was on the 110th floor in a smoke filled room with a man who called his wife to say "Good-Bye." I held his fingers steady as he dialed. I gave him the peace to say, "Honey, I am not going to make it, but it is OK...I am ready to go."
I was with his wife when he called as she fed breakfast to their children. I held her up as she tried to understand his words and as she realized he wasn't coming home that night.
I was in the stairwell of the 23rd floor when a woman cried out to Me for help. "I have been knocking on the door of your heart for 50 years!" I said. "Of course I will show you the way home - only believe in Me now."
I was at the base of the building with the Priest ministering to the injured and devastated souls. I took him home to tend to his Flock in Heaven. He heard my voice and answered.
I was on all four of those planes, in every seat, with every prayer. I was with the crew as they were overtaken. I was in the very hearts of the believers there, comforting and assuring them that their faith has saved them.
I was in Texas, Kansas, London. I was standing next to you when you heard the terrible news. Did you sense Me?
I want you to know that I saw every face. I knew every name - though not all know Me. Some met Me for the first time on the 86th floor.
Some sought Me with their last breath.
Some couldn't hear Me calling to them through the smoke and flames; "Come to Me...... this way... take my hand." Some chose, for the final time, to ignore Me.
But, I was there.
I did not place you in the Tower that day. You may not know why, but I do. However, if you were there in that explosive moment in time, would you have reached for Me?
September 11, 2001 was not the end of the journey for you.... But someday your journey will end. And I will be there for you as well. Seek Me now while I may be found. Then, at any moment, you know you are "ready to go."
I will be in the stairwell of your final moments.
God
(author unknown)
-------------------- Virgil and Mary Posts: 58 | From Wisconsin | Registered: Jul 2006
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kelmo
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posted
whoa
Posts: 2903 | From AZ | Registered: Feb 2006
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I was working at home when my neighbor called and asked if I had turned on the TV or heard the radio. Of course I said no and immediately switched on the TV. I had an appointment with a client that day and we cried together.
My daughter who was almost 5 at the time came home from pre school and told me what happened in a scaled down version. She never saw the Twin Towers crumble like the rest of us. I remeber going to the under ground mall in the Twin Towers and could hardly believe a building could collapse.
Posts: 738 | From Colorado | Registered: Oct 2004
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In my home office (in VT) listening to NPR and trying to call my friends in the city or that have husbands working there. Friends all ok, but not two guys I knew in high school, who worked at the top of one of the towers.
Later in the day had an appointment to buy new glasses, optometrist also didn't know if friends were ok, we thought up to 50,000 people could have died. It was surreal being there picking out glasses while this was going on.
Posts: 449 | From Vermont | Registered: Nov 2004
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I was home in the Philly suburbs on 9/11. I had been scheduled on a bus tour to the Statue of liberty and downtown Manhattan. On the night of the 10th, I got a call from the bus company telling me they overscheduled and could I go the following week. Otherwise, I would have been in NYC when it was happening. Had gone to NYC the week before and got beautiful pictuures of NY skyline including the towers and Ellis Island. A neighbor had called to check on me to see if I had left and I turned the tv on to see what was happening. Too close for comfort on that one.
Posts: 719 | From Delaware | Registered: Jan 2006
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