Tuesday, September 11, 2001. I woke up. It was a nice September day in The Bronx. I had to get up to get ready for Archeology class at Hunter College in NYC. I was dreading going to class. There were always small quizzes the teacher would give us.
I got up and turned on the tv. It was the news. Apparently a small plane had hit the World Trade Center. Now forgive me for what I thought after I heard this. You must remember I was a naive 18 year old. I thought to myself " No school today!". Again forgive me. I didn't realize that people were in the building. I grew up in NY and never even had visited the World Trade Center. I didn't even know what actually went in in the place. So I didn't think much of it. And they thought it was a small plane. So yeah I thought well either the pilot died or that they probably escaped! Again I was stupid! I didn't realize what had happened. Then I saw the second plane hit. It was a commercial airline plane. I stayed there shocked, stunned, paralyzed. This couldn't be happening! What was going on! Tears started streaming down my face as I realized there were people in the buildings! The terrorists were able to attack NYC!!
I got dressed and went downstairs to find my dad sitting in the middle of the living room watching the news. I called my mom at work several times before I could get through to her. The phone rang several times from phonecalls from our family members. I called my sister. I was going to her house. I called my Bf at the time to assure him I was ok. No, he didn't call me, I called him. That's another story in itself.
I went to my sister's apt where we spent the day watching the news, crying and repeating the words "Oh my God" more times than I have ever remembered saying. We saw people running, papers flying and people jumping. At that time I couldn't comprehend it was actual people. We realized until we heard on the news and saw the closeups.
We saw the buildings fall. My sister just gasped and turned to me and said "Oh my God! That's it! There's no more World Trade Center. It's not there anymore! Oh my God!". Me? I was just shocked. I called my crying mom again at work and called my dad at home a few blocks away. Stunned was the general reaction.
That night all you saw on the tv were replays of the events of the day. It was horrible. The days that followed were no better. The jet fighters flying overhead took over the noise of normal airplanes taking passengers on their flights. Newspapers were plastered with missing people's faces and the most horrible pictures I had seen up to that point. 3 pictures always are in my mind when I think of that day. The first showed a heavy set woman looking to jump out of the building. The second showed a man falling heartless with one leg straight and the other in a triangle form and his hands behind him. And finally the third and the most graphic was of a hand pointing to nothing laying on the street. That's it a hand separated from it's owner. All I could think was "what if someone recognizes that hand?" it was a man's hand and I just thought of the wife who could see that! It was a horrible time for all of us. I thought of all the families that spent their last weekend with their loved ones. The couples that kissed goodbye. Those that were fighting and didn't. I still think about them.
I always regret my first thoughts on that day. I always get a sickening feeling when I see videos of that day. I always tell my husband I love him, even when we are upset. I make sure he knows he is loved. I pray for those innocent souls who passed onto better realms that day.
I woke up, turned on the news and the weatherman was saying how great the weather was. I took an archeology quiz and failed. I took the train and went home. It was Tuesday, September 11, 2001. It was the Tuesday that never happened.
On that day I was already in Florida. And I remember that I was watching the show ER on tv, when my husband called from work and told me the first tower had fallen. I didn't believe him, I thiught it was a scene from a movie or something like that, until the channel cut to the news. I rememeber feeling desperation as I tries calling my mother and getting no answer, thinking of my brother who at the time went to school in the city, and releif when I finally got through.
ReplyDeleteWe have to hold our loved ones very close to our hearts. Tell them how much we love them. I always hug and kiss my children and tell them that I love them whenever I leave their sight, because we never know if that will be the last time we will see them.