I Will Never Forget 9/11

September 11, 2011

I Will Never Forget 9/11

I’m not usually an early morning person, or a morning person at all for that matter, but on September 11, 2001, I had to drive my husband to work that morning.  I remember it being around 8:50 a.m. and I was driving home after dropping Tom off at work.  I was listening to the radio and I heard them saying that a plane had hit one of the towers at the World Trade Center.  I’ll admit I was kind of baffled at first because to my recollection, they were pretty big buildings and I was wondering to myself “how could someone not see them?”

I soon arrived at home at 9 a.m.  I turned on the t.v. to see what was going on.  I soon got one of the biggest shocks of my life a few minutes later when I saw another plane hit into the second tower of the WTC.  My first reaction, and please forgive me, was “Oh s***!” soon followed by “Oh my God!”  My hands were firmly clasped upon my face in utter horror and shock.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  But as everybody already knows, this was just the beginning of this horrible tragedy.

I remember watching the towers burn.  I remember staring it utter horror as people jumped out of the buildings.  It was heartbreaking and is honestly quite painful to write about as I am trying to do this.  I remember seeing what happened at the Pentagon and the plane crashing in Pennsylvania.  I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell was going on.  It almost felt like the end of the world was here.

I remember my dad waking up and me telling him about what was going on.  And soon, me, my mom, and my dad sat and watching as the first tower collapsed, soon followed by the second.  It was such a sad and awful sight to have to see.  I can honestly tell you that I have only seen my dad cry a handful of times and this was one of them.  Hell, I’m getting teary-eyed writing this.

The rest of the day just was gut-wrenching.  I remember constantly hearing updates of how many people were missing and were presumed dead.   Just so very sad.

I remember later on in the afternoon I had to pick up Tom from work.  I was already very upset by what was going on and my husband ended up getting out late --- which put me in a worse mood.  Tom wasn’t really aware of what was going on because he didn’t have access to a t.v. or radio where he was working.  I remember sobbing to him and telling him that the towers were gone.  “They’re gone!  They’re just gone!”  I sobbed.  Tom was in shock and ended up seeing all of this for the first time on the televisions at Walmart.  Tom had been in one of the towers before with his father.

In the aftermath of 9/11, most of us did our parts, or at least what we could do, to help assist with the rescue efforts and with helping those in need.  I know Tom and I did what we could even if it wasn’t much at times because we didn’t really have much to give at the time.

I guess, for me, time and other events in my life have begun to numb some of the pain of 9/11, although, I will honestly forget what happened as it was one of the most significant events in history for my generation and it taught me a lot about life.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the victims of September 11^th.