hello dearest reader,
(this is a repost of the blog post I wrote last year about 9-11)
God Bless America, God Bless all those who were lost that day, God Bless our Troops & all the brave military men & women who have lost their lives fighting for our Freedom & God Bless those left behind.
Today as we remember the events of 9-11, I'd like to share with you my experience. We were living in NY at the time, 50 miles from ground zero and Dawn was working in Manhattan. We lost many local people that day, office workers, firemen, etc.
It was a beautiful morning, full of sunshine & blue skies. I was working for the Telephone Company. Dawn had been working in Manhattan for about a year. She always called me when she got out of the subway on her walk to the office so I knew she arrived to her job safely. She was working in mid-town 57th Street & Lexington Ave. She called early that day, from Port Authority to say she just heard a plane hit the World Trade Center. I had not heard anything about it so I went on the Internet to check it out. Dawn's subway train arrived & she said she'd call back when she got to the station at the Citibank building. I called my Mother & she said she was watching the news & it was most likely an accident. As I was speaking with my Mother, the second plane crashed into the other tower. She screamed. I started freaking out a bit.
I quickly brought up a live news feed on the computer. Word had gotten around the office & as a Telephone Company, we were immediately put into high alert. We had to protect all lines of communications as our office was a hub for NYC. Dawn called once she got back on the streets. She could look straight down Lexington Ave & see all of the billowing smoke. Everyone and I mean everyone on the street was looking up. She quickly walked (ran) to her office. As soon as she entered, her building was on lock-down. It's a famous building (The Galleria Building) and no one knew exactly what was going on. All anyone knew was that Our Country was under attack. Another plane hit the Pentagon, another plane down in PA. The horror, the sadness, the rage.
As news spread that all of Manhattan was on lockdown, everything was shut down...no one in, no one out...I was panicking. My Lord, how will Dawn get out? Is she safe? Are any of us safe? What else can happen?
I kept in contact with her as best I could over the phone. Many people could not get through on the phone lines because many of the phone lines in NYC were destroyed. Maybe because I was at the Telco, maybe because angels watch over us, who knows...I had a clear line to her office phone. I patched in her parents so they could know their girl was alright.
One thing led to another & Dawn was able to get a ride out of Manhattan, in a borrowed car, with her CEO. She was back in Orange County by late afternoon. Whew, my Dawnie was home, safe and sound. Shaken & stirred certainly, emotionally & physically drained, but Home...Safe...Alive.
When I got home, we put on the news. She had yet to see any of the coverage. She cried, I cried, we cried. Heartache...shock. That evening, all of the planes were still grounded. We were sharing a quiet moment when all of a sudden we hear fighter planes roaring overhead. Immediately we both went into panic mode...What is happening? Are those our planes? Are we being bombed? We are at war, we are going to die, now, tonight. We clung to each other...I called my parents again. They said that military planes would be flying all night to protect us. Neither of us slept much that night.
The next day, Dawn & I both stayed home from work. Numb at this point, we tried to comprehend what had happened. We thought of all the people we know that worked in Manhattan. We knew there were many locals who were NYC Firemen. In the days & weeks to come, we found out many from our county & surrounding areas were lost that day.
When Dawn went back to work on Thursday & for months afterwards, she was saddened by the sights of the City. On her bus ride into Manhattan, when she came around the corner to enter Lincoln Tunnel, she could see all of the smoke rising off of the island. The smoke kept filling the skyline for what seemed to her like forever.
Another heart wrenching sight that affects Dawn even today was all of the signs people hung looking for lost loved ones. Handmade & computer printed, these signs were plastered on walls, fences & poles the length of her commute from Port Authority to her office. Hundreds of faces on these signs...pleas for help..." Have you seen my..." Mother, Father, Friend, Sister, Brother etc. Prayer candles lined the streets under the signs...bouquets of flowers too. Day after day she walked past these missing person posters, some smeared from the rain, some torn & tattered but none removed. All hung in honor of someone who was loved, someone who was missed, someone who might not ever come home again. As I write this my heart aches as I remember this time in our Nation's history.
My life changed that day as I'm sure yours did to. Because we lived so close to ground zero, the event & the lives lost took a great toll on us and our local communites. As the weeks went by, when we were out & about, we'd see signs hanging with messages such as "I survived 9-11 Tower 2 68th floor" ... or... "My firefighter son died on 9-11". The newspapers eventually printed lists of those lost by town & by county. So sad, so very sad.
Within a year, the company Dawn worked for moved their national headquarters out of Manhattan & she got a new job in NJ. In 2005 we moved to NC and we love living here on the coast.
Do I miss NY? Yes I do. Very much so sometimes. I miss my friends & loved ones still living there. I miss the City in all it's glory...the museums, buildings, the people, the park....the electric spark you feel in the City that never sleeps. NYC is still a beautiful city filled with wonderful people. I've never felt afraid when I visited Manhattan, the atmosphere & the feeling you get when you are there is amazing... the City is alive & thriving, still, despite the fact that evil people tried to bring it down.
September 11th needs to be made a National Day of Rememberance. We must NEVER forget. God Bless America, God Bless all those who were lost that day, God Bless our Troops & all the brave military men & women who have lost their lives fighting for our Freedom & God Bless those left behind.
What was your experience on 09-11?
Wishing for you a day & a lifetime filled with light and love.
