Never Forget!!! Sept. 11
- Thread starter Karl_K
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Yup, never forget 9-11... 
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Such grievous loss was inflicted that day. (Although not often mentioned, those who then worked long hours so intently at "The Pile", the Fresh Kills Landfill, and the Medical Examiner's Office often suffered physical and emotional pain.) And yet... there was a powerful sense of uniquely wondrous community in New York City thereafter that I shall always remember as well.
This is my son's high school yearbook page (cropped). He was a junior on 9/11; his school, just north of the WTC, was evacuated as the second tower collapsed, and he was plagued by severe respiratory problems for the next two years. I was frantic for most of the day because he had been late in leaving for school that morning, so I feared he had been walking by the WTC when the first plane struck... and he was not able to call me until the late afternoon.
The only thing he has ever told me about the morning itself is what he said after we finally were able to hug each other at about 8:30 that night: as a single tear from his left eye made its way down his ash-covered face, he said softly, "I saw people falling, I saw people leaping."
The only thing he has ever told me about the morning itself is what he said after we finally were able to hug each other at about 8:30 that night: as a single tear from his left eye made its way down his ash-covered face, he said softly, "I saw people falling, I saw people leaping."
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- Messages
- 33,275
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... Aha-ah...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace... You...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world... You...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one''
John Lennon
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... Aha-ah...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace... You...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world... You...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one''
John Lennon
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2003
- Messages
- 22,146
That was a very moving share, Molly. I did not have anyone I loved come through the rubble, nor did I lose anyone I knew personally. That I did not was a small miracle because, like you, I was very close to the place where New York took the hit. I am phrasing it that way because I do not live or work next to or in The World Trade Center. But I grew up in and was raising my family in a bedroom community in Connecticut where all the men commute to New York City by train to work.My husband was one of those men and had an office a couple of blocks from The World Trade Center on Wall Street. My daughter was 9 years old and at our local community elementary school in Connecticut a block away from our house.
On September 11 my husband was sent to a retreat in rural Massachusetts by the Wall Street bank for which he worked. It was some sort of team-building exercise in which the participants were not supposed to be disturbed by any outside influences. I learned of the attacks at my computer, reading a forum about diamonds and went to turn on my television. When I phoned the place where my husband's training was taking place no one had heard that there had been any attacks. All the people there had offices within blocks of Ground Zero. It was by chance that they had not been at those desks. And my husband and the man he brought home with him (a man from New Jersey I had never met before) just wanted to get into New York City and get back to see what had happened to their offices. Had they lived through the horror, I am sure they would not have been thinking about their desks, but the man from New Jersey was frantic that the bridges were all out and he couldn't get back to the bank. (He also couldn't get home to New Jersey without great difficulty.)
In the coming days my husband sneaked around The National Guard to get into his office which was piled foot high with ash. My daughter went to school with children who did not know where their parents were since cell service had been knocked out and people couldn't get out of Manhattan. Amazingly and blessedly, not one parent of someone from her school died at The Twin Towers. It was like the fire station in the film we watched last night. We were a lucky school. But our town was not so lucky.
Like you, I have to mention the spirit of community that existed, and existed for some time, after that tragedy. I worked to raise money for survivors of the attacks, primarily through The Robin Hood Fund. People (including me) ran into the street to pick up any small American flag that someone had had on his property that had fallen to the ground. We all had large flags flying on our homes. We went to church, whatever the denomination, with our neighbors to mourn. It was a different world for a while. At least that is how it was for me.
Deb
On September 11 my husband was sent to a retreat in rural Massachusetts by the Wall Street bank for which he worked. It was some sort of team-building exercise in which the participants were not supposed to be disturbed by any outside influences. I learned of the attacks at my computer, reading a forum about diamonds and went to turn on my television. When I phoned the place where my husband's training was taking place no one had heard that there had been any attacks. All the people there had offices within blocks of Ground Zero. It was by chance that they had not been at those desks. And my husband and the man he brought home with him (a man from New Jersey I had never met before) just wanted to get into New York City and get back to see what had happened to their offices. Had they lived through the horror, I am sure they would not have been thinking about their desks, but the man from New Jersey was frantic that the bridges were all out and he couldn't get back to the bank. (He also couldn't get home to New Jersey without great difficulty.)
In the coming days my husband sneaked around The National Guard to get into his office which was piled foot high with ash. My daughter went to school with children who did not know where their parents were since cell service had been knocked out and people couldn't get out of Manhattan. Amazingly and blessedly, not one parent of someone from her school died at The Twin Towers. It was like the fire station in the film we watched last night. We were a lucky school. But our town was not so lucky.
Like you, I have to mention the spirit of community that existed, and existed for some time, after that tragedy. I worked to raise money for survivors of the attacks, primarily through The Robin Hood Fund. People (including me) ran into the street to pick up any small American flag that someone had had on his property that had fallen to the ground. We all had large flags flying on our homes. We went to church, whatever the denomination, with our neighbors to mourn. It was a different world for a while. At least that is how it was for me.
Deb
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