On That Day

I rarely do anything other than cute pictures and stories of my girls, but today is a different sort of day. Today is the 5th anniversary of the September 11th terroist attacks on America.

Where were you when you heard about it?

I was on my way to work, listening to the radio when the DJ broke in and said the first plane had hit. I remember the weird feeling I had as it took me a few seconds to actually comprehend all that he was saying and then the second plane hit while he was talking. The DJ started yelling on the radio. He wasn't even talking calmly relaying the news anymore. He was relaying it but almost shrieking.

I got to work and everyone was in shock. We had a large conference room t.v. in a closet next to our work room that someone pulled out and plugged in in the middle of two aisles of cubicles. We turned it on and because there wasn't much room left to stand and see. Some of us stood on our desks and looked over the walls to watch the t.v.

We started crying when the first tower fell. We were watching it live. We were in disbelief when the second tower came down. People were walking around with their hands over their mouths. A reporter on t.v. said there were more planes that had yet to comply with the grounding orders and I remember feeling like the world had gone mad. What was happening? Were more planes going to hit buildings and kill more innocent people? And then they did. We were so sad. We were scared. We were in shock.

The day was so somber. I don't think we actually did any work that day. People came and went to impromptu church services all over the city. My boss left and went to her church. Around lunch we went to a huge conference training room and held hands in a big circle and prayed for the families of those lost and hurt. We cried together.

Once home I remember that there was nothing on t.v. for days. For days and days we watched news coverage. We cried watching the families put pictures up looking for their loved ones. We cried listening to the stories of passengers on the planes who called their families to tell them they loved them one last time. One of the first things I remember is that when the regular programming did come back on, we watched David Letterman and he cried on t.v.

Over the next few days we couldn't find yellow ribbons or flags anywhere in the city. The American pride was stronger than ever and we all wanted to show our support. To unite and come together.

It was a sad sad day and I think it will forever affect us in ways we will always feel. I hope we never forget the feelings we had that day. May we always remember those lost and the pain we all felt for those families even though most of us didn't know them. And may we always swell with pride for our country.