Getting close to the anniversary - where were you on 9/11?

[JFS in IL]

I was home, schooling two kids, with one at special needs school a bus ride away and hubby in downtown Chicago when my sister from California called to tell me to turn on the news. I was on the phone with her watching when the first tower fell - later my mil here had me call my sister to have her call hubby in Chicago to tell him to get on the train and come home as the local phones were down but long-distance could still get through. He gets a call from his sister-in-law at work telling him his mom said he had to go home NOW! (he worked next to the Sears Tower and no one knew yet what other planes might still be coming anywhere). He hung up our flag in front of the house the moment he got home. Rain/snow aside, it has been hanging up ever since.

After reading many other posts, I recall, too, a couple days later having to drive past O'Hare International airport on the way to a doctor app't and how quiet it was with no planes in the skies. Normally we have planes taking off and landing or circling overhead - like large bees off in the distance.

[Pencil Pusher]

Every yr, the week before, I think will be fine.

I was driving ds to daycare after dropping dh at work, & I was on my way to school. I was sure that we were being attacked, although I thought it was China. I wanted to keep my baby close, but I realized that could be foolish.

It was my dad's bday, & his dad had just died the mo before. A mo later, my 2yo cousin died in her sleep w/out cause.

A couple of yrs later, my aunt died (48) just before her bday--9/11. She & dad were best friends until just a few yrs before she died. She & her dh divorced & she got heavy into drugs & stopped talking to anyone. When she died, right before their shared bday, he lost his chance to reconcile w/ her. And his 2nd wife had just left him.

9/11/05 was the last time I saw my dad alive. I was going to call him for his bday instead of driving out to see him, but the night before, I dreamed that he died, & because of that, dh insisted we go. Dad died a week later, at 49.

Like I said, the week before 9/11, I always feel like I'll be fine. Then the date hits, & I remember the towers & my dad & granddad & everything, & the days between that day & the date dad died tick off, & things get hard. Even though I keep telling myself every yr that this yr will be different.

Yr before last, we took his ashes to spread near the beach where he used to live. Dh took me to my old house, & we sat on the pier where dad & I used to go fishing, & I can see it more clearly now in my mind, & there's a little pile of ashes there, too.

But I think this yr is going to be easier. ;)

[Lorna in the boonies]

I had just dropped my older two kids off at school (this was before we started homeschooling, obviously) and was back home, nursing my newborn and watching the episode of "Little House on the Prairie" where the blind school burns down. The baby finished eating and a commercial came on -- I put the baby in her crib and got online. I went to a forum I frequented, and one of the ladies had just posted to turn on the TV, because news of the attack had just broken -- not 2 minutes from when I had just turned it off.

[Carrie1234]

I was at work (a Curves-like gym) in Trenton, NJ. We had a t.v. in the kiddie room, which I never turned on unless a parent requested it. For some strange reason, I turned it on that morning.

Dh does a lot of work in Manhattan (including the towers) and I had no idea what his schedule was supposed to be. I couldn't get through to him with the lines jammed.

On top of that, Trenton pretty much shut down, except for the hospital across the street. I wanted to get on line to donate blood (because everyone still thought we'd be needing it) and then go pick up ds from daycare so I could go home and focus on locating dh. My boss refused to give me permission to close the gym. Eventually, I ignored him, locked up, and went home.

Military planes zoomed over us all day. Dh wasn't in NY, but he could see the smoke from his NJ office.

It was also the day that I found out I was pregnant with dd. Hormones did not help me out that day!

[stephanie]

I remember I was blow-drying my hair then finished and started flipping quickly through the channels. I saw footage of the planes crashing into the tower, but was going through the channels so quickly that I thought it was just a tv show. Then I kept seeing it..over and over. I was petrified! I remember we had a well-visit with my youngest, and I was scared just to drive over there for fear of something happening in our town. (We have a ton of refineries here so I felt it was a target) It was such a sad time for so many people, and still is. I know that God was crying that day for our country.

[Paula in MS]

I was working at a bank and was pregnant with my only child. We didn't get much done that day. I'll never forget it.

Paula

[Kathleen in VA]

I was asleep and got woken my dh calling to tell me. We had had a particularly rough hs-ing day on that Monday and were seriously considering sending the two oldest to school. Dh called and said we really don't have any problems and to hold them close.

[Academy of Jedi Arts]

I was doing some housework. 2 month old dd was in her cradle in the living room. I heard the words "plane" and "WTC" I went to the TV. When I saw the 2nd plane hit I picked up my baby girl and said, "OMG, we're at war."

[nestof3]

Home with Nathan and Ben (Ben was 3 months old and sleeping).

My husband and Aaron were working. Dh called after a customer told him what had happened to tell me about it.

[Nakia]

My husband, Anna, and I were at Myrtle Beach, SC. We decided to go out shopping that morning. We went into a store that had a big screen TV, and everyone in the store was gathered around watching it. We walked up just in time to see the second plane hit. :(

[momofkhm]

I was on the computer having taken oldest to school. I was checking a different board back then. Everyone started "talking" about what was happening in NY. I had just tuned off the tv and thought - nothing, there's nothing going on. I turned on the tv and watched awe struck - this can't be happening. I'm pretty sure I saw both towers fall. I was glued the rest of the day.

I didn't think anything of middle child watching with me until a month or so later when we saw a car fire. After all what could she comprehend since she was "only 4". Her only question was "Does this mean a whole lot of people are going to die?" Because the only other non-animated fire she'd seen was the towers that day.

DH got sent home from work early - Cisco.

We live in the flight line to the airport but don't "hear" the planes. With all flights being grounded for a while, I didn't notice anything until they started to fly again and then it was a weird noise.

[laylamcb]

Oh, what a day. I was working in Alexandria, just a few miles from Arlington and the Pentagon. I remember the office buzz beginning about something happening in NYC; I quickly clicked over to The Washington Post, which had some crazy headline about one of the Towers being hit by a plane. We all made a mad dash to the lounge area, where we had a ceiling-mounted television. I remember watching this craziness and looking around the room at these silent faces, all looking up to the television with their mouths open. We just...stood there. We watched and watched and watched. We watched the second plane go into the second Tower. We watched in horror.

And while we watched, we heard and felt this tremendous BOOM. There was a kind of collective gasp, and then someone whispered, "What was that?" We continued watching and got a news clip that something was going on at the Pentagon--perhaps another plane? Was that the BOOM we felt? Then we watched the Towers go down--everyone was either silent and open-mouthed or screaming. Then I heard a news report that Fairfax County firefighters were being dispatched to the Pentagon--and I just took off. I don't remember even telling my boss I was leaving, but I must have. Everyone was leaving. It was the weirdest thing. We all just bolted for our cars. Truly, I've never driven so fast in my life. I flew around the Beltway out toward Dulles Airport where we lived at the time--and when I saw my DH's car parked in the driveway, I almost collapsed with relief. He was supposed to be on duty that day but was home sick.

Strangely, DH has a lot of "survivor guilt," so to speak, about 9/11. The guys at his station on his shift were sent to the Pentagon, and they've debriefed about the horrors they discovered (the charred bodies still sitting at their desks, etc). And then, of course, there were the 343 in NYC, a number that's branded on every piece of firefighting apparatus in Fairfax County, it seems (and rightly). For months afterward DH would become very sullen and moody--really, almost depressed--every time 9/11 came up. I think he's processed it now.

ETA: Rereading my response, that sounds SO selfish that I was relieved that DH wasn't on duty doing what he's trained to do: help people. And it WAS selfish. I wanted him to help me. Totally selfish and ridiculous, I know. But I was so scared, just as we all were. And I wanted him to be there with me. And then of course, those brave firefighters in the collapsed towers were fresh in my mind on my way home.... Oh, what a horrible day.

[TXMomof4]

It's amazing how clear these memories are.

It was a Tuesday, we had a bible study at church every Tuesday. I was getting the girls dressed, I had an18 mo and 2 mo old. I saw it on TV and just couldn't believe it. We got in the car and the tower collapsed while I was at Arapaho and Preston Road. I remember looking at the people in the cars around me and seeing people with their hands in their hands sobbing. I will never forget that.
We had a little TV on at church and one of our elders was supposed to have flown out of Boston Logan that morning and his daughter was there with us. We didn't know where he was, couldn't get hold of anyone. I watched more news that next two weeks than I ever have in my lifetime.

[Stacy in NJ]

I was dropping my boys off at pre-school, turned on the radio and heard the news.

In my previous life, I worked on the 77th floor of tower 2. 23 of my former co-workers were killed on 9/11 and the firm I worked for went bankrupt.

My husband was downtown on that day and watched the towers fall.

I'll never forget how vulnerable we are, and how necessarily it is to aggressively seek out those that want to kill us BEFORE they do so. And, I'll never forgive those people in power who were lazy, incompetent and complacent and let this happen because they're first priortity wasn't our safety.

[Remudamom]

Cleaning up our bedroom upstairs and turned the tv on to listen to while I was cleaning. I NEVER turn the tv on up there while I'm cleaning.

[Binalina]

My oldest dd was 18 mo old and I was 7mo preg. with my twins. We were all home and DH was at work. I was just doing my normal day (not too much at that point) ie I was as big as a house. My best friend called me to tell me to turn on the tv. I also thought it was a TV show and couldn't believe that it was actually happening. I remember feeling very vulnerable and trapped. I mean - where was I going to go, huge and with a toddler? I remember feeling sad for the two little people I was bringing into this world and the little one already here.

I had many sleepless nights thereafter, and then the twins came. A happy distraction as I didn't have time to think of much else except for them.

This time of year always feels sad to me now also because it marks the beginning of my grandmothers health issues. Leaves turning always bring me back to losing her.

BL

[Holly IN]

We were eating at Bob Evans then heard about a plane crashing into something when we left then went on to the dentist office (5 min away)for our kids dental cleaning. We watched the 2nd plane hit the World Trade Center on tv in the waiting room, we got there just in time. Everybody was crying. I was in total shock. I just couldn't believe it.




Holly

[Mountain View Academy]

I saw the 1st and 2nd planes hit and frantically called my mom several states away who didn't know what we going on. We were on the phone for a couple hours!

My husband, a pilot, was headed to NYC but diverted to Detroit. He heard the towers in DC try to reach the pilots of the plane that went into the pentagon and no answer. An emergeny protocol built into the system was used that morning and had never been used before. All the pilots in the air that morning had no idea what was happening until after they were allowed to land and deboard.

[Cadam]

I was up early to feed a 5 week old baby. I sat down to nurse, flipped on the tv but didn't make it to feeding the baby. For the first time in 5 weeks she didn't cry as a way of telling me to "hurry up!". She was quiet while I watched and tried to understand. At first I thought they were showing a clip from a movie. Then I tried to decide if I should wake an exhausted dh. Eventually I decided I couldn't deal with it alone so I woke him. Eventually I did feed the baby btw. I think the fact that she needed me so much kept me functioning through the mental fog of that year and the next.

I still remember the horror I felt and exactly everything that happened that day. I imagine we all will remember. Like older people know where they were when Kennedy was shot or Purl Harbor was bombed, we will always know where we were when the towers fell.

That week our 3 biggest (read "only") clients cancelled their contracts and we were plunged into years of financial strain and debt that we have still not recovered from. My husbands company went under and it took him years to find steady employment. He still ran the business because the self employed can't get unemployment benefits but the stress and debt and grief took their toll and we will never be the same.

[betty]

As I was leaving my dds preschool someone told me about the twin towers, I couldn't believe it. I went to get ds from OT and in his first year of homeschool and heard about the pentagon on my way. As I picked up ds I told the therapists. Two of the therapists had husbands at the pentagon.

I was supposed to attend the funeral of my neighbor's grandson. He was born a week after my ds and lived under 2 hours. My mother came to watch the baby and older ds so I could go. She was concerned that I was still going, but I thought it was extremely important. I was driving with another neighbor. The funeral was quite far. If you know the area, I'm in western Fairfax and the funeral was near Fort Belvior. The traffic and news reports on the radio got worse and worse as we went. The neighbor I was driving with was extremely nervous. Just over half way there we surmised we were going to be stuck in some heavy traffic and would have difficulty getting back. So, we turned and headed home. I picked up dd early from preschool, at my mother's urging. My neighbor, who had been driving with me, got her kids from school and camped in my house. I wouldn't let her put the tv on. I didn't think it was good for the kids to watch our anxiety rise.

My dh was working in the district at the time. He found out after leaving a big meeting. He and a partner stepped out of the office building to find complete and absolute gridlock. When I got to talk to him he refused to leave work. He said from his office window he could see there was no point in trying to drive anywhere. Another neighbor's dh worked one block closed to the whitehouse on Penn Ave. His office building was evacuated and he had to walk to Mclean (couldn't get his car out) where his wife was teaching. My dh came home quite early for him (5 pm).

I live on a street with about three hundred town houses and lots of kids. All day the moms were consulting eachother. One mom had grown up in a military family. She kept repeating that we must proceed business as usual. We should not panic and take our kids out of school. We should hastily evacuate our homes near Washington, DC. Her dh had the longest commute--he worked in Prince George's County, MD. Her mantra was stand firm, stay the course. We could evaluate what needed to happen when we knew more. I had to agree. I couldn't think that I had any place to go.

We had a prayer vigil on the sidewalk that night.

[NevadaRabbit]

Home in southern California - dh was getting ready for work and I was lying in bed in the guest room where 3 month old ds and I had slept part of the night. It was pretty early a.m. and a friend called us to tell us to turn on the tv.

[Quiver0f10]

I was bring my 9 yo, who was 2 at the time, to Boston's Children hospital for a check up. We were almost to Boston when we heard the news of the first plane hitting. We kept driving, thinking at the time that it was an accident. When the news reported the 2nd plane, DH took turned around and we headed home. The other kids were home with a sitter and I remember feeling absolutely panicked until we got home and were all together.

[JenParrish]

I was at home nursing my 2 month old son. My husband called me and told me to turn on the TV that a plane hit the tower and then I saw the other one hit. I was really concerned for the life of my newborn, fearing war on US soil.

[Dawn E]

I was in the San Francisco Bay area (Palo Alto to be exact :001_smile:) pregnant with dd, getting ready for work. We had just moved into a new apartment the month before and had not yet hooked cable up. My mother-in-law called to tell me the news about 15 minutes after Dh had left on Caltrain headed to South SF for work. It was pre-cell phones for us, and I had no way to contact him.

[Jenny in Atl]

I had just dropped on Mac at school, and Fi and I were at a small Hallmark, which also served as our local post office. There was complete panic, parents wondering if they should get their kids, everything came to a complete standstill. I remember calling my dh on the cell, really unsure what to do. Our tiny school kept the kids till normal dismissal time, and said nothing to them. They wanted them to have as normal a day as possible. I will never forget the odd quiet that week... no planes overhead. We had friends in the city. So much will never be the same.

[LizzyBee]

I was at work and my older 2 kids were at school 1 block away. I walked out to the receptionist area to ask the secretary something, and she put her hand up to signal me to be quiet. She had the radio on, and I thought she was listening to a radio preacher or something. Finally the words began sinking in and I realized one of the towers had been hit. We continued listening and heard that the 2nd tower was hit. I said, "OMG, we're under attack." I stayed at work, but it was hard to concentrate that day and I doubt I got a lot done. Dh called me several times to give me updates on what was happening.

DH said he was just walking in the front door at home and the neighbor came out to tell him the first tower was hit. He must have been coming home from dropping the kids off at school, and he must have had the baby with him. She was 2 months old that day.

[Just Me]

My older two children were in first grade and kindergarten, and my youngest son and I were at home. He was watching a video in the living room, and I was cleaning my bedroom and moving furniture. I had turned my tv on to catch teh morning news and saw the footage, then the second plane hit.

The worst part for me was that my dh was in Honduras on a mission trip, so I had no way to contact him. Then once they grounded all flights, I wasn't sure if he could come home. I was really scared, and I remember how much I wanted him there. While they were there, they found out what had happened, but couldn't understand what they were hearing on television, because everything was in spanish.

I also remember thinking that he wouldn't be able to see everything, so I video taped everything on television that day.

Thankfully he and his group were on the first flight allowed out of Honduras into America, except for two couples who volunteered to stay behind because they had no children. So he returned home about a week after the 11th. I don't think I have ever been so happy to see that man!

[laylamcb]

I will never forget the odd quiet that week... no planes overhead.

Oh my goodness, Jenny--I'd forgotten that. There were no planes here either, so close to DC--except military aircraft. We were in the Dulles Airport corridor then, and so when the flights started up again, I remember just kind of wincing for a while every time one passed overhead....

[jmgconner]

I was teaching when my DH called me. During my break, I went to call him back. He asked about what the school was doing about the situation. What situation? I asked. He told me and then I went straight to the teachers' lounge and turned on the TV. Our school was put on lockdown, but we were told NOTHING about what was going on. We just assumed that the police were chasing a suspect near the school. Administrators later admitted they messed up big time, but that was another huge strike against me ever working as a teacher again. I quit at the end of the year and started homeschooling.

[Heather in NC]

I was teaching high school. We had TVs with cable in our classrooms and my dh called me and told me a plane had hit one of the twin towers and to turn my TV on. I did and my entire class and I watched the towers fall. I was devastated and we were all crying. It was awful.

[Jennifer in MI]

I was at home. Dh was listening to the radio. He came running in to our tv room and flipped on the tv. We watched in horror. I'm sad that my two older boys actually remember the footage, but dh and I just couldn't stop watching it that morning.

Dh flipped out. I remained calm. I took the boys to a park so that I wouldn't have to watch the tv. That's where I heard about the third plane - right near where we used to live in PA. I panicked a bit and took the kids grocery shopping and stocked up on water and some canned goods - just in case.

I'm emotional just thinking about it right now. It was such a scary time.

[hsmamainva]

I was homeschooling my two oldest (then 10 and 7) and 5 months pregnant with our youngest child. My then 2 year old was watching "Mr. Rogers" so I had no clue what was going on.

My husband is a goverment contractor and he'd just left one of the military bases in the area (we lived in Maryland at the time) when the 2nd plane hit the tower. Not long after that, they closed the base, so he wouldn't have been able to leave if he hadn't left when he did.

I remember looking out the front window and I saw him running into the house and I wondered why he was running. When he told me what happened, I couldn't believe it. I didn't believe it until we put the news channel on.

I was a LaLeche League Leader at the time and it was the day of our group's Walk for Breastfeeding and I was rushing to finish school so I could go. I ended up having to call my co-leader to cancel the walk (it took a long time to get through because all the phone lines were down in the Washington area). I had to break the news to her because she didn't know about it either. (That was why my husband hadn't called to tell me -- he couldn't get the call to go through).

It was a sad, sad day. I no longer homeschool on 9/11. To me, it's a day of reflection and respect.

[Mama Lynx]

I was pregnant. That was my normal gym day, but for whatever reason I decided not to go.

I was online checking my email, and my kids were watching PBS. Someone sent an email about how she'd just seen a *second* plane crash into the WTC. I ran to the news websites, not wanting my dc to see a plane crash on TV. I couldn't get to any of the news sites. It wasn't until then that I realized the magnitude of what was happening.

I kicked the kids off the TV, and watched the news. DH was home that day, and was in the shower. I just stood there, crying. When they announced that they had shut down U.S. airspace, I went and got him. I was babbling incoherently, because I couldn't *say* the words. I told him that they'd shut U.S. airspace down, and he thought I had lost my mind.

Later that day, my 11 month old took his first steps.

[Mama Lynx]

Oh my goodness, Jenny--I'd forgotten that. There were no planes here either, so close to DC--except military aircraft. We were in the Dulles Airport corridor then, and so when the flights started up again, I remember just kind of wincing for a while every time one passed overhead....

No planes around Dallas, either. And when they started back up, I caught myself doing the same thing.

[OnTheBrink]

I turned on GMA, which I'd never watched before, and saw the footage just after the first plane hit the WTC. At that point, it was speculation as to why the plane hit the building. As the commentators speculated, the second plane hit. I was holding dd in my arms and I just stood there, stunned, horrified, feeling a deep pit in my stomach and scared to death for my father, who is often in NYC and DC. I called Ds into the to tell him what was going on. He didn't have much of a reaction initially, but when people started jumping and falling out of the WTC, the reality hit him and he just sobbed.

I'll never forget that day and I'll never forget the footage of people in the middle east celebrating that. Never.

[sleepy]

I was grocery shopping with three kids in tow. I had no idea what was going on until I turned on the radio during the drive from one store to the next. I remember the first words I heard were, "It has now been confirmed... both towers have fallen..."

We were heading for a little health food store in town, and when we got there the employees were listening to coverage on the radio. It was very surreal, and I remember thinking that I just needed to hold it together until we got home.

Once I was able to get home and turn on the tv, it really started to hit me. I wasn't able to sleep at all that night. It seems like I was glued to the tv for the first 48 hours or so.

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

and taking care of my kids. Typical AM in my house. My bf called to see if I had heard or seen anything about an airplane crashing into the World Trade Center. I told her no, but perhaps it was a news traffic aircraft.

Then on the radio, a commuter reported an airplane had crashed into the Pentagon. The commuter called in had their sunroof open and had a piece of the aircraft land on her passenger seat.

Then, my I called my dh and he watched the second plane hit the tower while he was on the phone with me. Right after I hung up with him, my mom called (she worked right down from the White House in DC) and told me she was on the road and headed to my house (in Manassas). Those were the last two phone calls I could make that day - the lines were busy or down all through the area. I kept my kids from the tv (we had one down in the basement). I remember feeling so helpless. I lived in the flight plan of Dulles and the silence in the sky was so erie. I remember seeing Air Force I flying over.

A year later, we dealt with the Beltway Sniper -- that was almost worse as it was a slow, prolonged stress that overcame all of us in the area.

I saved the newspapers for the day and plan on sharing them with my children as we study modern times this year.

K

[hsmamainva]

Oh my goodness, Jenny--I'd forgotten that. There were no planes here either, so close to DC--except military aircraft. We were in the Dulles Airport corridor then, and so when the flights started up again, I remember just kind of wincing for a while every time one passed overhead....

I remember that, too!!! We were living less than 10 miles from the Patuxent Naval Air Station at the time and we always had planes flying over our house. It was SOOOO quiet for days afterward and I remember that feeling of dread whenever we heard the military jets and then, later, when commercial planes started flying again.

[Crissy]

We were all still in bed.
My parents were visiting relatives in the mid-west and my mom called me. She knew I would still be asleep and she wanted to talk to me before I turned on the TV.
Her words were, "They're flying planes into buildings."
Knowing how my mom exaggerates, I knew it was very possible that 'they' was a single pilot, and 'planes' could be one small aircraft that had a terrible accident.
Who could have believed the truth?!

I turned on the TV a few minutes before the first tower fell. I just kept saying, "Oh, God. Oh, God, no."

I stayed in front of my television for an entire week. I sat, and I watched, and I cried for a whole week. I couldn't do anything else.

[sdWTMer]

Had just gotten off from driving my bus route and was driving to pick up the kiddos from my parents house. I was listening to my favorite talk radio show that morning and I heard that they had breaking news. When I got to my parents house, luckily dh was there and we watched in unbelief together with my father.

[Tracey in TX]

9/11 is DS's birthday. It was to be a family day. DH was home before his flight out later that afternoon. (Obviously, it never happened.) I was listening to NPR and they were talking about some strange event. I thought it was a Broadway play, but was too weird. I was in NYC the week prior with some girlfriends. The proposed week was to be there on that date, but I wanted to be home with DS. Thank goodness! I would've been staying in Manhattan.
We sat glued to the TV in shock.

Side note: DH's was born on the year anniversary of JFK's assassination. He once said he wished no child would ever have the burden of having such a tragedy on their birthday. Then came 9/11.

My hearts go out to the many children who lost their parents in the Twin Towers, Pentagon, and United Airlines 93 flights. And the many families who lost loved ones during those terrible terrorist attacks.
As the years have gone by, I've also begun to think about how the many faithful Muslims must feel about the image they have to present to overcome the radicals. No matter what the viewpoint, everyone loses. :(

[Lolly]

We were at home having school. I learned about it when I took a break to check on the WTM boards. I couldn't figure out what anyone was talking about. None of it made sense. I finally turned on the television. That was about 10 minutes before the second plane hit.

[King Alfred Academy]

We were vacationing in Gatlinburg, TN. All of the little stores had it on over their loud speakers. It was weird because no one was talking about it. Just listening. We went into our hotel room and watched the coverage for a while and then had to step away from the tv because the emotion was just too much.

[clarkacademy]

I was taking the older two to pre k. I heard it on the radio. I will never forget it a song was playing and stopped. An announcer came on the radio and stated, an airplane has flown and crashed into the twin towers, we have no idea of injured or casualities, may God be with us all.... I realized that day we were not safe. I sat at the light until cars started beeping at me. I could not believe it and at first it was like, No way that was an idiots idea of a joke. Sadly it was true. :grouphug:

[Kay in Cal]

I was six months pregnant with our oldest son, asleep in bed...

The phone rang, and I grabbed it. It was my mom, who said "I'm still alive." I had no idea what she was talking about, and as she started to tell me what was going on we turned on the TV in shock.

My mom works at the pentagon... at the time she was still a Colonel in the Air Force reserves (she was a JAG) as well as having a civilian pentagon job (she still does--though their offices are now across the street, not in the pentagon itself).

I spent the rest of the morning in bed, holding my belly and feeling the baby squirm as we watched TV and tried to reach all of our Manhattan friends to make sure they were OK. Then I went in to church and we started planning worship services for that night.

[Sue G in PA]

Every year at about this time I start feeling a bit depressed for seemingly no reason...you just made me realize why. It isn't for no reason. It's b/c of 9/11. I didn't lose any friends or relatives on 9/11...but I remember the overwhelming grief and sadness and fear I felt that horrid day. I wept w/ the thousands of people who did lose loved ones. I was safe and secure in my home, ready to walk my 5yo (now 11yo) to the busstop, preparing to take my 4yo (now 10yo) son to the dr. to get his cast on. He had just broken his wrist a few days before. I remember driving him to the dr., listening to the radio while there and the odd silence in the dr.'s office. I didn't even realize what had happened that day until my mother called me and told me to turn on the tv. I was horrified. I immediately thought of my MIL (well, step-MIL..dh's stepmom) who was a pilot for USAIR and immediately tried to contact her to see if she was in the air or on the ground. Thankfully, she was on the ground. We will always remember...

[WTMindy]

We were all still in bed.
My parents were visiting relatives in the mid-west and my mom called me. She knew I would still be asleep and she wanted to talk to me before I turned on the TV.
Her words were, "They're flying planes into buildings."
Knowing how my mom exaggerates, I knew it was very possible that 'they' was a single pilot, and 'planes' could be one small aircraft that had a terrible accident.
Who could have believed the truth?!

I turned on the TV a few minutes before the first tower fell. I just kept saying, "Oh, God. Oh, God, no."

I stayed in front of my television for an entire week. I sat, and I watched, and I cried for a whole week. I couldn't do anything else.

Crissy, this is almost exactly my story. I was sleeping and dh called from work and said, "Turn on the TV. All hell is breaking loose." I too turned it on in time to watch the tower fall. I had two little people and I couldn't tear myself away from the TV for a week. I didn't even know anyone directly involved and yet I still tear up just reading all these accounts. I can't believe how close to the surface the grief still is even after seven years.

[Michelle in TX]

I was sitting on the couch nursing my almost 2 week old dd. My twin boys were 21 months old at the time so they were playing in the family room and my dh was still home with me and our new baby. We had the TV on and actually saw the 2nd plane hit the tower. And we saw the towers collapse. I think we were in shock for a very long time after that. It just didn't seem possible for something like that to happen on US soil.

I wish the news media would replay the events that day on TV every anniversary so Americans would remember and mourn our loss each and every 9/11.

[Aggie]

Stationed on a military base. Dh had just left for work at some ridiculous hr (4am I think), heard the news on the way to the office, then turned around to come wake me up and tell me. By the time he got back to housing, it was locked down tightly.

For the next 2-4 weeks, all we heard were military planes. The marines set up camp in the base school and tents on the grounds, the AFB was used as a staging area, the air show was cancelled, it took *hours* to get onto base because of the searches. That weekend, we hosted some friends off a submarine who pulled in to load some 'special' weapons. They had been at sea all week and hadn't seen anything.

Our local community is having a service next week. We'll go to that instead of having class.

[Crissy]

I wish the news media would replay the events that day on TV every anniversary so Americans would remember and mourn our loss each and every 9/11.

I completely respect your point of view, Michelle, but I am so glad they don't. It is one thing to remember and to honor, but another thing to experience it all over again.
Part of grief is healing. I don't think many of us could get to that point if we had to relive the events of the day on a regular basis.

But then again, everyone is different...
I had a conversation with my sister last month, around the anniversary of my brother's death. She is still hopeful that we will someday know who killed him. That there will be a trial.
I was shocked. I have been of the opinion for years now that the last thing my family needs is to live through the horror and the details again.
I still have a hard time understanding her point.

[Crissy]

I can't believe how close to the surface the grief still is even after seven years.


That surprises me, too. Especially because I don't know anyone who was directly involved.

[LisaK in VA]

I was pregnant with my 2nd child, home in Richmond with my 2yo son. My husband was in New Jersey across from the towers. I was watching the news, when I saw the 2nd tower hit... I called my younger brother who works a few miles away from the Pentagon. While I was on the phone with him, the plane that hit the Pentagon flew past his office window.

:crying: It's something I will never forget.

[sdWTMer]

I can't believe how close to the surface the grief still is even after seven years.


I think that we can get just a little glimpse of what all of our civil servants and military people go through when there are tragedies as that one. Just a little glimpse though. :crying: Thank God for all of them!

:patriot:

[M&M]

We were getting ready for storytime, I was watching the tv and talking to a friend. We watched in horror the live coverage.

We live very close to Manhattan, we have neighbors that commute. It was a hard day as many close to us waited for loved ones to get home. One neighbor did not go to work that day, and his whole staff was lost. One friend saw the first tower fall from his office and ran...it was hours before he was able to contact his wife and let her know he was ok.

I will never forget the silence of no planes flying over, no cell phone service and being without power. There are memorials to those lost in the park where I walk, and a large memorial very close to here where you can see the skyline of NYC. It is still strange to not the towers. I am thankful that dh was not called to work in the city that day, as he often worked right across the street from the WTC.

We try to focus on ds's birthday and not dwell on what happened, but it is never forgotten.

[TN Mama]

It has been very emotional reading all of your accounts from that day. For me it is hard to believe that it's been 7 years. I remember it all so vividly. My husband was at work and I was home with Bella who was just 6 months old. I was watching my guilty pleasure (7th Heaven) and on a commercial I flipped over to the Today Show just before plane number 2 crashed into the WTC. For a few minutes I was very confused.

I tried calling my stepdad who was always traveling. His secretary hesitated and told me that he was in NYC. It wasn't until the next day that I found out he did NOT go to New York and that he was fine.

We live about 20 minutes from an airport and it isn't the silence that I remember so much, but when planes started flying again... I'll never forget throwing myself onto my living room floor when I heard a plane go overhead for the first time since that Tuesday morning. People who know me have a hard time picturing that because I'm not one who worries or is easily disturbed. 9/11 was different. I cried for weeks on and off... hearing stories about people who had died, hearing stories from families who hadn't given up hope but hadn't heard from their loved ones... ugh.

On the first anniversary there was a big blood drive downtown and I took Bella and lined up to give blood. They gave out ribbons of red, white & blue with the name of someone who had died that day. I still have mine tied around the rearview mirror in my van.

[Michelle in TX]

Crissy, you have a good point about healing. However, we still are engaged in the battle, so to speak, that this act of terrorism initiated. There are a lot of things still unresolved. People still want to harm innocent people here in our country. I'm not sure what the solution to that is but I'm pretty sure it doesn't involve doing nothing. I just think Americans are too happy to slip back into complacency rather than stay involved and engaged. There is still work to be done to secure our country and we the people need to demand of our leaders to do more. Right after 9/11, the country was united and angry that we were attacked. I think we need to remain as united as we can as it relates to terrorism. It's a shame that protecting our country has become a political debate.

[RebeccaC]

We were sleeping. Dh was working a weird shift at American Airlines and was getting home at 4 am or so. Our assistant pastor phoned to make sure that Dh was not flying that day (dh is not a pilot he is part of the ground crew) The phone call woke us up. We then turned on the TV. Hd had to be at work at noon and he went in. He then found out that he knew some of the folks who die very well.

I think I posted somewhere else about how AA and the FAA required all personal to be at work and in the lunch rooms. At O'hare there are roughly 3,500 folks who are part of dhs union working shifts around the clock. They have several lunch rooms and folks were basically locked in. Each lunchroom has several monitor that play CNN news. The men and women in the lunchrooms had no way to turn the monitors off or turn down the sound. Nothing flew for a week if memory serves me right and those employees sat there for 8 hours with no work hearing CNN redo what happened. They asked for the set to be turned off, they were not, management was scrambling and extremely fearful about loosing the company and employees were not on their radar, at least at it was that way at Ohare. seems like the 4th or 5th day in the men just torn the sets from the ceilings and walls and defied management to fire them, with the understanding that the union would let the media know about them not turning the sets off. No one got in trouble for it. It really hit those folks hard tho, half the marriages failed that year, there were a lot of bankruptcies because folks lost huge amounts of their income so AA would not go into bankruptcy, and alcohol and drug abuse went through the roof, quite a few of the younger men enlisted in the military, one of dh close friends from work did and he was the first tri amputee in the war but he felt his sacrifice was worth it. Or heard that similar things happened with United employees.

I know that airline employees were not first responders but 9/11 hit them hard and rearranged their lives. Jobs and income was lost which in the big picture is not a big thing but close friends and co-workers died and there was a lot of guilt and anger among employees. If dh had not been married with special needs kids I think he would have been one of the guys who enlisted. Each night when they were not flying and just setting in the lunchroom he would come home just seething and could not sleep which made things worse. Or is the type of guy who needs to work hard physically and when he doesn't in normal times he is a ball of nerves, with the stress of 9/11 he was just off the charts. I did what I could to help him but it wasn't much or enough, some things only God can help with. In our lives there is pre 9/11 and post 9/11 it really was a line of demarcation in our lives.

[WagsWife]

We had been stationed in Minot, North Dakota for 4 1/2 years. We were *so happy when we finally got orders to Vandenberg AFB, CA. We got checked into a hotel in town about 1 a.m. on Sept 11th, but because we were all so excited to be in a new place, we all got up fairly early.

The girls (5,2 and 1) were watching Nickelodeon. DH and I were getting ready in the hotel bathroom and the toilet would not flush. I called the front desk and remember getting an "odd" response from the lady at the desk...almost like she could not believe I was worried about a toilet. I just brushed it off as being in California. DH started playing around with the girls, when a maid came to fix the bathroom. She kept sticking her head out of the bathroom, looking at my Dh and kids laughing, like we were idiots. I remember thinking we had entered the twilight zone.

When she was done with the bathroom, she came out and said "you don't know do you?" Dh and I asked her what she was talking about...and she told us that we were under attack. We threw the kids and our stuff in the car as fast as we could, because DH (being a AF cop) knew they would shut the base down. We got there just in time.

The next few days were so surreal. I did not want the kids to see what was on tv, so we kept them busy exploring our new base. On one hand we were happy and relieved to be at this base we had tried so hard to get orders to...but on the other hand we felt like we had no right to be happy about something so trivial. At night, when the girls were in bed, we would watch the news, stunned at what was happening. In someways we felt like our Nation would never be happy again.

[chanda7]

I was 5-months-pregnant with my first child and working as a journalist. Once we heard about it, we watched most of the coverage off-and-on TV the entire day. I saw the 2nd plane go through the tower on live TV. I heard about the Pentagon crash on the radio while I was in the car. I watched a lot of the original coverage on Youtube about a month ago and just cried :(

[hmsch4me]

We had spent the weekend in Vancouver, WA for a potential job opportunity and left Portland at 6am. The crashes happened while we were in the air. When we landed at LAX they were evacuating the airport. My husband, former military, shifted into a whole different mode (not knowing if the attacks were over or just beginning). We ran to the rental car station, grabbed an SUV and took off, getting as far from LA as we could - or any major city. Our kids were back at home in Atlanta, GA being watched by my MIL - who was glued to the TV. My kids were in ps at the time, so we called and told her to get them out - didn't know if school would go into lock down. We made it to Atlanta in 24 hours. I'll remember it well. We were all safe, by the grace of God.

[Holly IN]

Yes I remember that day and a few days after that there were no planes overhead. It was really weird not seeing planes in the sky.

Holly

[Mommy22alyns]

Sleeping in, as DH and I didn't have to work until that afternoon. His parents were supposed to fly to Bethesda to get FIL's cancer treatment. The phone rang, it was MIL, saying that they wouldn't be flying. DH went to the living room and turned on the TV. I will never forget the words I heard "...impact area around Manhattan..." I bolted out of bed and went and sat, horrified, in front of the television. We watched the second tower fall.

We worked in a mall and the place was deserted. Maybe an hour after we got to work, mall security passed a message around that we would close for the rest of the day. We closed up, went and had lunch at KFC, then went home.

Just a lot of shock, speechlessness...

[Saille]

I was in the car with my first baby and dh, on the way to a small town in southern Ohio for a final visit before dh accepted the job. We stopped at a fast food restaurant to nurse, and the order monitors had all been tuned to local TV stations instead.

We took the job. Dh covered local community reactions for them that day.

As we drove home that evening, we passed the a huge caravan of emergency vehicles, black trucks and trailers...the Urban Search and Rescue team from Wright Patterson AFB, headed for NY.

[Alice]

I first heard at Home Depot where I was buying paint. It was when the first plane had just hit and people were still thinking it was a tragic but weird accident. Then I went home and turned on the TV to watch while painting. I was painting the kitchen that whole day and kept the TV on. I just remember being kind of numb and in shock.

I don't think it really hit home to me until I called a close friend who works at the Pentagon. I had been holding off calling because I didn't want to tie up their phone lines if he was trying to call his wife. Finally I called hours later and he answered the phone and I started crying. I hadn't realized until that moment just how worried I was.

There were several people at our small church in Arlington who work at the Pentagon. Thankfully, they were all ok. There were calls all day long from various people reporting when they had heard from one of the people who worked there.

[Once]

We lived in NY State two hours north of the city. Dh was in Scotland for work and would be gone for 2 more days. I was caring for a friend's dd, taking her to the school bus and walking home. Stopped in at said friends house and found him watching TV. We did not have cable so I watched in horor for a while and in an act of self preservation left for lunch. Dd was only 18 months and oblivious. I cannot remember picking up friend's dd after school....shock I suppose.

Dh was grounded in Scotland for another week and the border was closed to Canada (my country of origin). We had almost $25 in our bank account and I was scared. I sat in the dark listening to the radio for hours after dd went to bed. For days, I watched the newspaper spectualate about poisoning the Hudson River and picked up water bottles with my last $25 dollars. Those water bottles were still there when we moved a year later.

It is a time I do not ever want to relive but it gives me perspective when I hear about war in other countries.

[dragons in the flower bed]

I was home with my 1yo. XH called before his first class (teaching science in a cottage school) to tell me, "Call your family and say goodbye," (see why he's an XH?). Dad was working in NYC that day. I turned on our TV just before the second plane hit. I remember listening to Dad's cell phone ring over and over while they played the crashes over and over. It was mesmerizing. Eventually Grandma beeped in via call waiting to tell me he was fine.

[Paz]

I was at home and we were having school when dh called and told me to turn on the TV. 9/11 is my birthday and I was upset with dh the night before because he got tickets to a baseball game and was taking one of his clients instead of celebrating with me. I accused him of ruining my birthday. I began seeing things in a less self-centered way at that point. My birthday was forever changed but not by something as insignificant as a baseball game.

[ticklbee]

I was home, just seeing dh off to work when my neighbor came out and told us what was going on.

Dh's employers lost someone, my best friend lost someone...it seemed like everyone either lost someone or knew someone who did. Very tragic.

My dh used to work at the towers at Windows on the World. I am so thankful that he no longer did!

[TXMomof4]

Crissy, you have a good point about healing. However, we still are engaged in the battle, so to speak, that this act of terrorism initiated. There are a lot of things still unresolved. People still want to harm innocent people here in our country. I'm not sure what the solution to that is but I'm pretty sure it doesn't involve doing nothing. I just think Americans are too happy to slip back into complacency rather than stay involved and engaged. There is still work to be done to secure our country and we the people need to demand of our leaders to do more. Right after 9/11, the country was united and angry that we were attacked. I think we need to remain as united as we can as it relates to terrorism. It's a shame that protecting our country has become a political debate.

I agree. It all becomes hypothetical without the reality of that day to remind us. How easy to let ouselves believe that it could never happen again. How much more comforting that is! Unfortunately, that isn't reality. London and Spain are proof that there is still this same evil out there and being vigilant is necessary for our safety.

[TXMomof4]

In our lives there is pre 9/11 and post 9/11 it really was a line of demarcation in our lives.

My mom and I were just talking about this a few days ago. My brother had just enlisted in the Army the spring of 2001. It was new and exciting to be a military family. Now, 7 years later, my brother, my husband and my BIL are all military. 9/11 changed the direction of our lives forever. Having that super-successful job and moving up the company ladder isn't nearly as important as making a difference in this world somehow.

[muffinmom]

I was about 6 weeks pregnant with my first child and hoping I wouldn't miscarry like my previous two. I was a freelance editor, so I was at home. My dad called to see if I'd heard. So I turned on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit.

I was afraid all the emotion would be hard on my body, but I was able to really cry it all out instead of keeping it in. But it was scary realizing that I was soon going to bring a child into such a world.

[Tammy in Germany]

We were stationed at Fort Irwin, CA and my MIL called to tell me to turn on the TV..she was on the east coast. We all stood and watched in shock.

[Mrs Mungo]

I was living in Germany. So, I'd already had a normal day with the kids-playing at the park, etc. I was working on some volunteer work when my neighbor knocked on my door and told me to turn on the tv. I turned it on just before the second plane hit the towers. We looked at each other and said "we're at war."

I disagree with the notion that protecting our nation has become political. I know some extreme liberals who are against the GWOT but they are few and far between in my experience. I assure you that citizens of our nation *every day* are working to protect our country and that will not end, no matter who ascends to the presidency.

[Elaine]

I was running on the treadmill at the gym. (We were living in NJ at the time) September 11th is my sister's birthday and we were going out to celebrate that evening. I went home, still completely unaware of what had happened, and my phone rang. It was my husband. He wanted to know if I'd heard from my brother who worked in tower 2.

I told him no, and then asked him why. He asked if I had the television on. I went to turn it on and began shaking and crying.

I spent the next hour frantically trying to reach my brother. When I finally heard his voice I just wept from relief. He had overslept and missed the train.

The sadness and grief that I experienced on that day, and the days that followed, remain even now the most profound sadness that I have ever felt. I felt stuck. Paralyzed, unable to move. It felt wrong to laugh. It felt wrong to want to celebrate my sister. It felt wrong to be alive when so many were dead. I could not turn the television off.

I will never forget many days later the words spoken by then mayor, Rudy Giuliani. "Go out to dinner. Laugh with your friends. Go shopping. Live your life, it's OK to want to live." I felt as if he were speaking to me. It made me realize that I wasn't alone in what I was feeling.

9/11 is still hard for me for a variety of reasons. I lost people that I loved and I lost the security and sense of innocence that I once felt. As time passes it does get easier, but I never cease to be amazed at how quickly I can be transported right to that exact mooment and time and feel all of those feelings again.

[sdWTMer]

I was running on the treadmill at the gym. September 11th is my sister's birthday and we were going out to celebrate that evening. I went home, still completely unaware of what had happened, and my phone rang. It was my husband. He wanted to know if I'd heard from my brother who worked in tower 2.

I told him no, and then asked him why. He asked if I had the television on. I went to turn it on and began shaking and crying.

I spent the next hour frantically trying to reach my brother. When I finally heard his voice I just wept from relief. He had overslept and missed the train.

The sadness and grief that I experienced on that day, and the days that followed, remain even now the most profound sadness that I have ever felt. I felt stuck. Paralyzed, unable to move. It felt wrong to laugh. It felt wrong to want to celebrate my sister. It felt wrong to be alive when so many were dead. I could not turn the television off.

I will never forget many days later the words spoken by then mayor, Rudy Giuliani. "Go out to dinner. Laugh with your friends. Go shopping. Live your life, it's OK to want to live." I felt as if he were speaking to me. It made me realize that I wasn't alone in what I was feeling.

9/11 is still hard for me for a variety of reasons. I lost people that I loved and I lost the security and sense of innocence that I once felt. As time passes it does get easier, but I never cease to be amazed at how quickly I can be transported right to that exact mooment and time and feel all of those feelings again.

Oh Elaine! I'm so sorry. http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd32/sdwtmer/smiley_50.gif

[Elaine]

Oh Elaine! I'm so sorry. http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd32/sdwtmer/smiley_50.gif

Thanks, Julie. :grouphug:

[Jennifer in MI]

I was running on the treadmill at the gym. (We were living in NJ at the time) September 11th is my sister's birthday and we were going out to celebrate that evening. I went home, still completely unaware of what had happened, and my phone rang. It was my husband. He wanted to know if I'd heard from my brother who worked in tower 2.

I told him no, and then asked him why. He asked if I had the television on. I went to turn it on and began shaking and crying.

I spent the next hour frantically trying to reach my brother. When I finally heard his voice I just wept from relief. He had overslept and missed the train.

The sadness and grief that I experienced on that day, and the days that followed, remain even now the most profound sadness that I have ever felt. I felt stuck. Paralyzed, unable to move. It felt wrong to laugh. It felt wrong to want to celebrate my sister. It felt wrong to be alive when so many were dead. I could not turn the television off.

I will never forget many days later the words spoken by then mayor, Rudy Giuliani. "Go out to dinner. Laugh with your friends. Go shopping. Live your life, it's OK to want to live." I felt as if he were speaking to me. It made me realize that I wasn't alone in what I was feeling.

9/11 is still hard for me for a variety of reasons. I lost people that I loved and I lost the security and sense of innocence that I once felt. As time passes it does get easier, but I never cease to be amazed at how quickly I can be transported right to that exact mooment and time and feel all of those feelings again.

Elaine - I tried to rep you, but I've got to spread it around more. Anyway, just wanted you to have this: :grouphug: This post made me cry!! I've been transported back to those feelings of the exact moment many times this thread.

[MeanestMomInMidwest]

I have logged on and off, trying to read all your memories of that day. I have been crying off and on all day.
My dh is a UAL pilot. He was at the airport (Chicago). I was home with first ds and 8 mos preg w/2nd ds. TV tuned to PBS, but nobody is watching. I'm doing that spurt of housework that we must do when birth is immenent. I remember thinking "It must be telemarketer Tuesday" because the phone is ringing off the hook, but nobody is leaving messages. Finally I decide to answer. Our dear friend (who is also wife to a UAL pilot) asks me, with her typical Southern Charm, "what are you doing?" and then, very conversationally, "Do you know where your husband is?" (Sometimes I don't keep track of his destination cities). When she found out that I knew exactly where he was, AND that he had a nonflying day, she then told me "something bad has happened. Go turn on the news" and hung up because she had more calls to make. I will never forget her kindness in breaking the news to me. No panic. Made sure I knew where dh was. No details.
We had friends stranded throughout the country and a cousin stranded overseas. Such uncertainty about our future. One thing was certain. When dh saw the planes hit (on TV in ops at the airport) he turned to the pilot sitting next to him and said "there goes my career." He was right. One month later...the same week ds #2 was born, he was furloughed. Our whole lifestyle, everything we expected pulled out from under us. Five years later, he was called back to a very different industry. Five years of struggle, lost income, lost status (yes, that matters more than it should), lost friends, all of our savings spent to find him another career & put me through college & live.....We're still paying off debt from that.
And now we live in a world that is so much different......And I have a life that is so much different than I could ever have imagined.

[Mrs Mungo]

Such uncertainty about our future. One thing was certain. When dh saw the planes hit (on TV in ops at the airport) he turned to the pilot sitting next to him and said "there goes my career." He was right.

It's strange how you can see in the moment of perfect clarity how your life is forever changed. Like my neighbor and I *knowing* we were at war. Since that moment my husband has been deployed twice. I've held grieving widows in my arms. I've felt my heart stop when a knock or phone call came just a little too early in the morning. I've known someone in our unit was killed and cleaned my house from top to bottom just in case.

It's been so many years now that I've known some widows who have remarried, seen babies born of those relationships...it's so strange to think it's been that long.

[MeanestMomInMidwest]

It's strange how you can see in the moment of perfect clarity how your life is forever changed. Like my neighbor and I *knowing* we were at war. Since that moment my husband has been deployed twice. I've held grieving widows in my arms. I've felt my heart stop when a knock or phone call came just a little too early in the morning. I've known someone in our unit was killed and cleaned my house from top to bottom just in case.

It's been so many years now that I've known some widows who have remarried, seen babies born of those relationships...it's so strange to think it's been that long.

So true....my dh is former military and strongly considered going back in. It was hard for me to be supportive when all I could think was "thank God we got out of the military just in time." In retrospect, I think he may have been happier if that avenue had worked out for him....the support for all things great & small we felt in the military is lacking in our civillian life.

[philda62]

I was home schooling the kids. A dear friend of mine knew we did not watch TV and would be schooling so she called me to tell me to turn on the TV. She has just explained that a plane had flown into one of the Twin Towers. When I turned on the TV I thought I was watching film footage of the first attack but actually watched the second attack happen.
I was getting my 4yo ready for preschool. My husband was working in a highrise building near an airport. I wanted him to come home. But I did not want to scare my children so I needed to make the day as normal as possible. So, I convinced myself that no one was going to attack a little preschool in small town Texas and took him anyway. When I returned the Towers had collapsed and the Pentagon was hit. A dear friend of mine worked in the Pentagon and it was a long day waiting to hear from him. He had not made it into work that day.
It was a long hard day.
Gilda

[Alyce]

When I woke up everyone was talking about it and of course it was all over the news but I could only watch reruns. It would have been nice to have been awake when it first happened. I like to watch peoples reaction to things. And in a way it made me feel less involved.

[Cheryl in NM]

I was driving my step-daughter to school. I almost turned around and took her home. Ds was 4. I heard the 1st tower fall on the radio and saw the second tower fall on the news. I sat in front of Fox News all day trying to reach DH and crying. Dh was hunting and not in cell phone area. After school dss told me how they were not allowed to say anything bad about the terrorists because it might hurt someone's feelings. I pulled her out of school the next day and began our homeschooling journey (it was just the last straw in a long bunch of straws!). Dh finally checked in that night and I told him "forget the deer come home now!". Of course, he's already packed up camp was on his way. We are in central NM, kind of between Los Alamos National Labs and White Sands Missle Range. Roswell, NM is only a few hours away and it has the longest runway in this part of the country. So I saw NM as a viable target and was scared.

I remember a country song that came out right away about a woman who receives a phone call from her husband who is on the PA flight and he's telling her that he loves her and the kids and that he's sorry, but he has to fight, then the line goes dead. They never play that song anymore. I think they should. I don't even know the name or artist, but I'm crying just typing this. I get depressed and weepy every September. I still can't imagine what it must be like for families who lost someone.

I am forever grateful to our military for keeping the terrorists away from us. I hope something like 9/11 never happens again.

[Elaine]

Elaine - I tried to rep you, but I've got to spread it around more. Anyway, just wanted you to have this: :grouphug: This post made me cry!! I've been transported back to those feelings of the exact moment many times this thread.

Thank-you, Jennifer.:grouphug:

[sdWTMer]

I am forever grateful to our military for keeping the terrorists away from us. I hope something like 9/11 never happens again.

Amen and AMEN! God Bless our military!

[tibbyl]

We were doing homeschool math. Eldest was few blocks away at local public high school. Husband was working in homeoffice.

Since I did not watch *any* TV at that time and only used computer occasionally, some time passed before we were informed by others. Typically we did not answer home phone during certain school hours.

We watched the coverage half an hour or so. Discussed the prior WTC parking garage bombing. Contrasted security in European airports with that of U.S. Then it was back to work and school as usual. No one got rest of day off work or school.

Since I tended to avoid speculative "news," I waited a week or so before updating myself on the situation.

[Cheryl in NM]

I was sitting on the couch nursing my almost 2 week old dd. My twin boys were 21 months old at the time so they were playing in the family room and my dh was still home with me and our new baby. We had the TV on and actually saw the 2nd plane hit the tower. And we saw the towers collapse. I think we were in shock for a very long time after that. It just didn't seem possible for something like that to happen on US soil.

I wish the news media would replay the events that day on TV every anniversary so Americans would remember and mourn our loss each and every 9/11.

Dh and I have been saying this for the last 7 years. In today's society it is so easy to forget what is at stake. The terrorists don't want to invade us; they want to kill us. It still gives me goosebumps.

[Krista in LA]

I was watching Good Morning America when the second plane hit the towers. It was almost time to load the kids up for preschool and kindergarten. I could hardly tear myself away from the tv to take them. I was working part time from home at that time, so when I came home, I moved a little 13" tv into my office so I could keep updated on everything while I worked. We live in the flight path of Barksdale Air Force Base so we always have B-52's flying over our house. The sky was quiet - the absence of the B-52's was pretty creepy. At some point in time, I decided I had to get out of the house and away from the tv so I got in the car to run to the store. As I was leaving, I was startled by the sound of a plan flying overhead - it wasn't the usual B-52 or A-10. I heard on the radio later that the President had left FL and came to BAFB. It was AF1 that flew over my house! I initially felt safer because it had to be safe here if the President came here and then I realized that it was no longer safe *because* the President was here. Seeing the soldiers we know as friends and neighbors scrambling to get to work and not knowing what they might be called to do was stressfull for everyone here. When they started flying again, it was kind of weird and reassuring at the same time.

[3lilreds in NC]

I was home with the girls, giving them breakfast I think. Emma was 17.5 months; Abbie was 5.5 months. I remember being out of grapes and MIL calling and telling me Emma could live without grapes, and we needed to stay put.

[Tarheel Heather]

I had just dropped my oldest off at preschool. On our way home the morning radio people were watching it and talking, the first plane had just hit. When I got home turned the T.V. on saw what was happening I got back in the car to go pick up my son.

[dorothy]

That morning a NYC friend called me on my cell. I was in the post office with dd. He said a plane had hit one of the towers, and I replied, "Probably some idiot in a Cessna!" I drove home and turned on the TV to find out more. Then I saw the 2nd plane hit. I kept screaming, "NO, NO, NO!!!!!" I tried calling all of my friends in NYC but couldn't get through. I raced to preschool to pick up my other dd. My DH came home and we just cried in disbelief and pain. The dds played in another room - they were young and we did not want them to see us in such a state. We held it together in front of them but we were emotional wrecks. We lost one friend in the 1st tower. Two friends cancelled September/October weddings. A few weeks later I flew in for business and was in Rockefeller Plaza when the anthrax was found - everyone hauled a** out of there. I still can't get over the skyline. I get a knot everytime I am there.

[sleepy]

I was running on the treadmill at the gym. (We were living in NJ at the time) September 11th is my sister's birthday and we were going out to celebrate that evening. I went home, still completely unaware of what had happened, and my phone rang. It was my husband. He wanted to know if I'd heard from my brother who worked in tower 2.

I told him no, and then asked him why. He asked if I had the television on. I went to turn it on and began shaking and crying.

I spent the next hour frantically trying to reach my brother. When I finally heard his voice I just wept from relief. He had overslept and missed the train.

The sadness and grief that I experienced on that day, and the days that followed, remain even now the most profound sadness that I have ever felt. I felt stuck. Paralyzed, unable to move. It felt wrong to laugh. It felt wrong to want to celebrate my sister. It felt wrong to be alive when so many were dead. I could not turn the television off.

I will never forget many days later the words spoken by then mayor, Rudy Giuliani. "Go out to dinner. Laugh with your friends. Go shopping. Live your life, it's OK to want to live." I felt as if he were speaking to me. It made me realize that I wasn't alone in what I was feeling.

9/11 is still hard for me for a variety of reasons. I lost people that I loved and I lost the security and sense of innocence that I once felt. As time passes it does get easier, but I never cease to be amazed at how quickly I can be transported right to that exact mooment and time and feel all of those feelings again.

Oh, Elaine... http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/sad007.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) I'm so glad your brother overslept. :grouphug:

[5knights3maidens]

That was my first year homeschooling...just had Becca and Tom. My dad called and said that a plane had hit the tower...etc. My 4 boys were in school and I wanted them to come home so badly but the school decided to keep them in until regular dismissal. Oh, a friend was working in the area and he came over to watch the tv. Tom remembers nothing, I guess he was to young but Becca remembers everything.
I want to add that the day before, we were at the Trenton, NJ aquarium with my dad. I believe we would have been in chaos, Thank the Lord we were not.

[Elaine]

Oh, Elaine... http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/sad007.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) I'm so glad your brother overslept. :grouphug:

Me, too.

You know, in the days after 9/11, our friends had so many stories of people they knew personally who, for one reason or another, were not in the towers at the time they were supposed to be. People oversleeping, taking children to school, personal days, flat tires, going back home for a forgotten item, spilling coffee on their suit and having to change. Of course these things happen all the time but they had a special significance on that fateful day.

[mcconnellboys]

I was homeschooling my older son when my mother called, crying, to tell me something was happening and to turn on the news. I was watching in amazement as the second plane came in and hit the second tower. And then I watched the fall..... Wow. It makes me cry even now to think of it.

My husband was in Las Vegas and got stuck for about a week before he could come home.

[sdWTMer]

Of course these things happen all the time but they had a special significance on that fateful day.

How right you are on that point Elaine! I wonder how many of those people have survivor's guilt.

[jail warden]

I was pregnant, due any day. Dh was self-employed at the time and came home. We watched the TV with ds and were just amazed and freaked out.

I had a meeting with my friends and went there and we were all in shock together.

[newlifemom]

they were so moving that I don't know if I can read all the others. first of my dh was working in NJ at the time(we lived in Long Island). Because he worked for the major traffic company in the city dd#1 and I would always turn on NBC to see the local traffic report to see the back of daddy's head. BTW that is when we first noticed the bald spot;). Anyway I saw the first news report and and then the watched for a while calling family on the west coast and waking them. Couldn't get dh for a while and then my girlfriend called me and asked me to come over. Both our spouses were stuck in NJ as there was no good way to get to Long Island. NYC was shut down. Interestingly, years before I had had a dream that dh and were separated just like that and NYC being bombed. Strange. I personally didn't know anyone who was killed but I do know some who worked in the towers and were tremendously affected. My girlfriend's sister had post traumatic stress over seeing people and parts of people falling from the towers. The whole thing was beyond anything I have ever experienced and I hope to never go through anything like that again. I tell you the truth I am so glad I have moved from Long Island I think I had some hidden anxiety about living there since 9/11. KWIM?

[Pajama Mama]

It was my son's 2nd bday. My mom was driving down that morning for his bday. I had a Barney video on so I didn't know what had happened until my mom arrived. I met her outside and she started asking me if I had any more info. She heard about it on the radio and assumed I knew about it. We turned off Barney and put on the news. We saw the second plane hit live.

We were supposed to take the kids out to lunch but we were glued to the TV instead. Besides, we lived close to Dover Air Force Base so we weren't allowed on the roads for most of the day anyway.

I was so worried about dh because he was an EMT and his work was looking for people to send up to New York. He volunteered but he didn't go because they started turning people away because they had too many people there.

[allearia]

I was about six months pregnant with my first son. My husband was unemployed at home. I was driving to work at my temp job that morning, listening to the radio and they were talking about some sort of plane crash. I am in California so this was probably two or three hours after it happened. It took me a while to figure out what had happened and I started shaking and had to pull over. Since I was a temp, I worked in a common room with a kitchen and TV, and when I got to work I started seeing the news footage. I called my husband who hadn't heard what happened yet. The whole next week while at work the TV was going constantly with news footage over and over again.

[Chris in VA]

Both my boys were in school--we had just moved here to NoVA from Dallas 3 weeks before so dh could start his job as the priest at Pohick Church. We live right next door to Ft. Belvoir, just 20 minutes from the Pentagon, and many folks from our church work there.

I was watching tv and screwing around, not wanting to do housework, hanging out with the baby. I saw the footage of the 1st plane, then saw the footage of the second plane. I felt a desperate need to go--to get out of the house. I went to the library down the street, of all places. THen I saw the reports about the Pentagon and I think the plane crash in PA. I came home quickly, feeling so panicky, yet oddly calm at the same time! My boys came home from elementary school and I had to tell them that this new place we lived was not safe. (Well, not in so many words, but that's how they took it.)

Dh contacted everyone from our congregation who worked at the Pentagon--thankfully, everyone was fine. Someone had almost moved into a newly renovated office that would have been in the wing that was attacked, but hadn't moved her office yet.

We had a service the next day or maybe two days later--we had to have it outside because there were so many people.

And as far as the planes flying overhead--we heard planes taking off from Ft. Belvoir, which freaked us out, because we knew it was military, and we just didn't know why they were flying.

And a year later, my kids had to deal with the crazy sniper-dudes--their school was locked everyday, they couldn't go outside, buses parked sideways to protect the kids going into the building, shades were drawn all the time--it was traumatizing. We are still dealing with the trauma of moving here in therapy.

I wish you all health and peace on Sept. 11.

[Parabola]

This was when my oldest was not quite one. At the time I didn't have a washer and dryer, so I went over to my mom's once a week to do laundry.

I always had the stereo on in my son's room, and that morning I woke up and went to get him out of his crib and on the stereo they were talking about a plane crashing into a buiding. For some reason, I pictured a light aircraft going into the Sears tower.

We get in the car and head on over to my mom's and for some reason I didn't turn the radio on. This is pretty much of unheard of for me, to be in the car without music. I think that possibly I managed to glean some more info from the radio news then I was aware of, and just wasn't ready to deal with it. Maybe.

So we get to my mom's, the door's open and no one is there but the tv is on CNN. And there I get the full-force effect.

My first thought was something along the lines of Who in the WORLD had the balls to bomb us?? Seriously, that was my first thought. Sorry if it offended anyone. And it was like a bombing, it took me awhile to stop calling it that.

I had another thought, followed a bit later, that I bet Al Gore was thanking his lucky stars he hadn't gotten that election afterall. At least for one passing moment.

So I sat there and watched the rest of the day. Actually for days, weeks afterwards CNN was on constantly. Some of the things that I heard about, the ones that actually turned out to be true, were truly awful. Can you imagine being near the top floors of these towers, with the inferno burning behind you, and only an open window ahead of you? What would you do?? I can't fathom that, I can't wrap my head around the choice that would have to be made.

It's a life-defining moment. Every knows where they were when it happened. Just like, in the past, everyone knew where they were when Kennedy got shot, or other historical moments.
But eventually 9-11 will be forgotten, it will pass into history and the people who experienced it - in any degree - will be gone, and there will be another life defining moment for the next generation.

[Just a Jen in Mississippi]

I had just moved to Louisiana and was doing school with my oldest who was only in 1st grade then. We were doing her Saxon math and called my dad to ask a question concerning a poll or something for that. He told me something along the lines about watching the world come to an end (though he didn't mean that) and told me about a plane hitting the Twin Tower. I got off the phone and finished school!!!! When I finally turned on the TV, I was shocked by the magnitude of what had happened! I had no idea it was that catastrophic!

[Frelle]

My husband was in England, working for BT for the summer. He was flying back to the US on 9/11 to attend his 10 yr HS reunion, through Dulles, and on to Atlanta. I had sold our house and put everything into storage and was staying with my MIL. After the reunion, we had tickets to fly back to the UK and live there that fall.

My MIL came to get me out of the bedroom where I was playing with Grace, who was about 20 months old. She put on Nickelodeon on the bedroom TV for her, and told me to come into the living room. I saw repeated coverage about the first tower hit, and saw the second tower get hit live.

I immediately wanted to reach Rob, but he was already in the air over the Atlantic. I called my mom and dad, and anyone else I could think of, and watched a LOT of TV that day. I'd never been so thankful for the fact that my young child was interested in TV, because I didn't want her seeing any of the images there.

I finally got a call late that night from a friend of Rob's in England. He wanted to let me know that the plane had headed back to Heatherow and that Rob was charging his cell phone and would call me the next morning.

Our life changed, but not as drastically as some. I will always remember the hours between the towers being hit and hearing that Rob was ok were some of the longest of my life.

[swellmomma]

I had just dropped the kids off at daycare and was on my way into my college and heard the news on the radio. I was studying early childhood development, but that day classes were virtually at a standstill, with most students watching tvs(that were wheeled into hallways, or in the college pub) for the live coverage. I remember being worried sick about my kids. Even though I knew they were okay I still just wanted to hold them close, but I had an exam in my last class of the day and couldn't leave. There was alot of talk that day around the campus, about whether or not this would be a war on U.S. soil and what impact that would have on Canada.

[Cathy in IL]

I had just settled my dd in her three year old classroom and was heading for the infant room where I taught. I stopped to greet a parent at the door, and she asked if we were still open. I looked at her in confusion and she said, "A plane has hit the WTC." I turned on the radio in the nursery and heard more about it. I called my co-workers into the room and we listened together as the story unfolded. Most of the children didn't get dropped off that day. Witthin an hour or so, almost all the children who had been dropped off were picked up and I was sent home.

I tried to limit my dd's exposure to the media coverage, but it was everywhere. She still remembers it. When they first let the planes fly again afterwards, we were downtown Chicago. My dd raised her fist in the air and called out, "Why, why? Why would they let them up there again!"

[E_Edgerton]

My boyfriend (now my Dh) and I were asleep...we didn't have class for a couple of hours still. I just remember my Grandmother calling me and screaming that something awful happened...then we got cut off. No more phone service the rest of the day. We had no cable or internet in our apt. at the time so I saw no images, I still haven't actually. I know the day happened, but I feel really sheltered from it. A blur really. I know it still makes me sad and I have an unease around this time of year.

[Soph the vet]

I was driving myself and two oldest dc (0 and 2 at the time) to Mother's Fellowship where I had to be early to help set up and man the registration table. The first plane had already hit according to the radio guy and I pictured a small plane in my mind. At the first major intersection from our house the 2nd plane hit and the radio announcer immediately said "we are under attack". All morning as women came to the church I would get more updates on the situation but no visual images (no TV) and our meeting became an all-out prayer meeting. As I was at the welcome table someone came in and said the first WTC tower had collapsed. That was when I lost it and started crying. I grew up an hour from NYC and it was a real treat to go up in to the WTC. Now one was gone. The church janitor had a TV in his office and a couple of us finally saw what everyone had tried to describe. It was surreal.
I watched the news for days on end. I know I must've known someone who died, there were so many I went to college with who ended up on Wall Street.
The other thing I remember was that evening going to the gas station and the prices were high and the lines were incredible.
My friend's dh was in WTC 1 on September 10th for business. He ended up driving back to MN a few days later. I also remember the F-16s flying overhead but nothing else.

[Kris]

Sweetie and I were driving truck, and I was on the "night shift." So when I woke up around noon, he told me about it and I remember telling him he must have been mistaken -- that had to be some kind of "War of the Worlds" thing. Our son wasn't with us, and we were two days drive from home. Aside from the obvious, I wasn't worried about him, so much, since he was out in the middle of nowhere -- I was worried about being cut off and not being able to get home.

[Jennefer@SSA]

My best friend called to tell me that planes were crashing into buildings and that one might be headed for the White House. My bil worked in the White House at that time so we spent the rest of the day glued to the TV waiting for word that he was okay. They had all been evacuated to below-ground bunkers and couldn't call until much, much later that night. The cell towers were jammed and no one could get calls out or in. When we finally got word he was okay we were so relieved although by then the towers had fallen and reports from the Pentagon were coming in. Just typing it brings back all the horrific feelings. I hope our country never sees anything like that again.

[cin]

I was sitting at my computer (about 6 ft from where I am sitting now) when DH called me and told me to turn on the TV. His boss (who was a little strange) had told him someone flew into one of the towers. I turned on the TV and called DH back and told him the 2nd tower was just hit. We realized that his boss wasn't wacky this time. He came home early that day, working in a building next to the federal bldg in our town.

On a side note, I have a friend who was suppose to be coming home from her honeymoon that week. Oh darn, stuck an extra week in Hawaii. :glare: But we were almost stuck in Canada. we came home the Sunday before.

I was glued to the TV that week. DH finally MADE me turn the TV off 2 days later. And later that month I started having anxiety attacks. A combination of 9/11 and the fact that we had just submitted our paperwork to Vietnam and OMG, there's a 'baby on the way'.

[Miss Sherry]

Yes, I remember also.
I was home with our 3 children and it was my youngest daughters birthday. It was the day of her 6th birthday and we were going to have her party that day.
My husband called and told me about the first building being ran into with a plane. I turned on the TV and soon after saw the second tower hit with the other plane. It was horrifying.
My two oldest children also saw it.

We postponed the birthday party for a couple of weeks.

My daugther and I baked cookies for the teenage neighor kids that would be coming home after school that day. We wanted to provide a nurturing enviroment for them and our own children on that disturbing day. They usually stopped by our house after school.
We all hung out in our backyard and the kids played some basketball and rode their skate boards on the large cement patio and ate the cookies and other things we had for them.

I remember the skys being so quiet - no plane traffic we were used to normally having - except there were some fighter jets that we were so thankful and happy for.
That day was especailly traumatic on my teens and the neighbor teens. I remember one of my daugthers friends saying at Halloween that year that she did not want to go to the Mall to shop for a Halloween costume because she was afraid it could be a terrorist target.

[cin]

My girlfriend's sister had post traumatic stress over seeing people and parts of people falling from the towers. The whole thing was beyond anything I have ever experienced and I hope to never go through anything like that again. I tell you the truth I am so glad I have moved from Long Island I think I had some hidden anxiety about living there since 9/11. KWIM?

My cousin is a nurse and was at the Oklahoma City Bombing. She was deeply affected by things you don't see on the news. One of which was the body parts. She was a nurse for one of the Denney children.

I tried to find her info on the web, but her name is very similar to the that of Princess Di (she got married at the same time and had a heckuva time getting people to NOT hang up on her when she was trying to get things done).

[Mom2boys]

I was holding my 10 day old infant, and recovering from a c-section. Dh was still home on paternity leave when his staff called (he is a newspaper editor) and told him to turn on the TV. We parked our 4 year old in front of Blues Clues in the other room and turned on the Today Show. When we saw the second plane hit the towers, he said "I have to go", and I said "I know". We didn't see dh for three days. Thankfully my mom and dad moved into my house and took care of the boys and I. For a week I watched TV and cried.

[RoughCollie]

I didn't find out about 9/11 until 4 p.m. that day, when my mom called me. I did not believe her at first, and I was completely horrified by it. In fact, it still horrifies me.

I couldn't turn on the t.v. because the boys were 7 and DD was nearly 6, and I did not want them to find out about it. I read the news online instead. My mom agreed with this because she did not want the kids to be traumatized by it. We are probably especially careful of this in our family because my mom was a child during WWII in East Germany and we are very cognizant of how violence effects children even if they are only seeing it happen before their eyes on t.v.

DD had just started first grade at PS and I kept her out of school for the next 2 days to make sure she did not hear about it there. When she returned to school, the little kids had moved on to discussing something else.

We went to Wal-Mart a couple of days afterward, and a friend of mine stayed with the kids in the car because I was afraid Wal-Mart would have the news blaring on their intercom, and sure enough, they did.

My focus was entirely on making sure my kids did not find out about this. I did not want to rock their worlds with terror at their tender ages. I did not allow anyone to discuss it unless the kids were all asleep.

I told them about it a couple of years later.

RC

[anissarobert]

I was at the first meeting of our classical support group. A friend and I were both trying to follow TWTM and thought it would be neat to start a group. We had our first meeting at the park, and we just sort of sat there and looked at each other while the kids played.

[WTMindy]

Sheesh!! Just reading this thread has me bawling!

[gardenschooler]

We were home, having school (mine were 9, 7, & 2), and the only tv we'd turned on so far that day was PBS. I decided it was such a beautiful day, I was going to call my friend and invite to go to the Botanic Gardens with us. She tried to tell me what was happening but I just couldn't comprehend what she was saying - How could this be? I turned the tv on in time to see the 2nd plane hit.

It's still surreal to me. I was born and grew up in my early years in NYC.

[AndyJoy]

It was my sophomore year of college, and I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth when a freshman girl came in crying, saying "We've been bombed! They're bombing all over the U.S.!" What I couldn't believe was that two girls who were blow drying their hair heard this passionate exclamation but immediately went back to doing their hair! I quickly ran to my room and turned on my radio and computer (we didn't have TVs) to figure out what she was talking about. Though classes were not officially canceled by the school, none of the professors taught their normal course content that day.

[Queen of Sheba]

Maui. On my honeymoon. We were supposed to go home that day and we were lazily getting packed up when the hotel rang our room and asked what our plans were. I politely told them that we had had a great time, but that we were, indeed leaving that day. They told me that the airports were all closed and that I needed to turn on the tv. Anybody else in Hawaii on 9/11 will tell you that we were all like zombies walking around in paradise. I remember at the time being really thankful that I'd scheduled the wedding BEFORE that date, and I felt sorry for all of the brides getting married in the coming weeks.

[katalaska]

We were in the middle of a move. As we got ready to leave our motel, we tried to turn on some cartoons for the kids to keep them distracted while we packed. There were very grainy pictures. I recognized one of them as the Pentagon--I used to drive past it every day on my way to work. There was a big hole in it and it seemed to be burning. I was confused when I changed channels and saw smoke billowing out of a skyscraper. We couldn't find anything for the kids to watch.

As we went through the lobby, we saw more strange scenes on the televisions and overheard a man talking on the pay phone about how he didn't think he'd be able to fly out that day. Something about planes being grounded.

Then we got to the border. Armed BATF personnel were everywhere. WE realized that whatever this was, it was HUGE. We were surprised they just asked for our passports, asked us a few questions, and let us go. They were escorting people from other vehicles inside the buildings at the border.

We had NO idea what was going on. Dh and I were in two different cars. We had walkie-talkie type radios with us. I was able to get some reception on the car stereo and radioed it to him. Something about planes crashing into buildings, the President leaving Florida and flying someplace secret, etc. It was confusing and scary.

We were in the middle of closing on the sale of our home. The buyers were in one state and the house was in another. The documents had to go by FedEx and the planes weren't flying. The person at the title company handling our paperwork had a brother in one of the Twin Towers and had to leave our documents with someone else.

[Eliana]

I was in the kitchen doing dishes when my mother called. ... amusingly, neither of us watch television, but my sister in London works for the BBC (when she isn't acting) and she called my mother when she saw it there... and my mother called me.

I remember being really careful about what I said because there were kids clustered about me... I remember extricating myself and going into the bedroom to finish the call... and needing to get a handle on myself before I came back out to the kids.

The aftermath is what really got to me even more, less grief (of course), but, ironically, more horror... but that is a different conversation.

[GSMP]

Our church has ladies bible study and visitation on Tuesday mornings. I had dropped the kids off at the school (located in the church) and kept the nursery for the other moms to go out.

From the room I was sitting at I could see there was a lot of activity at the front desk. More than usual. I wandered over to see what was going on and that was when one of the moms had come back to the church.

The towers had been hit as had the Pentagon. My husband was in D.C. where he worked on 25th and M street near Dupont Circle. I ran to one of the phones and called him. I managed to get through before the phone lines were shut down. He described the smoke billowing in the air from the Pentagon. He said I95 had all ready become a parking lot. He was going to try to take the train home but there was no use in him leaving now. He doubted he would be able to get through since one of his metro stops is at the Pentagon. He finally made it home around 10pm.

Our church has quite a large military contingent that attend. Many of the men and women in our church work at the Pentagon. We waited to hear from all of the families to make sure everyone was okay. There were stories and testimonies of men and women who for some reason or another didn't make it into work that morning or were running late.

My BIL was an EMT at the time. They were on their way back from Walter Reed, dropping a patient off. As they were driving over that section of I95, my BIL turned to his driver and said that plane was flying awfully low. As he turned his head to follow the plane he saw it impact the Pentagon.

They pulled over immediately and got off 95 straight for the Pentagon. They pulled up right as the Pentagons fire and rescue team pulled into the area where the plane hit. My sister was also an EMT at the time and was doing dispatch. My BIL called the Ambulance Company they worked for and Life Care sent every ambulance they had.

My BIL describes the horror of what they found when they were going into the building and trying to pull people out. They stayed there for two days trying to help the Pentagon and Fairfax Fire and Rescue. They stayed until they were sent home.

He said the horror of it was so overwhelming and the smell of the burning flesh and the jet fuel. He quit not long after that. He couldn't go back to being an EMT. It was too much for him.

He won't talk about it. We drove over to the Pentagon and got as close as we could. Many of the folks around here were doing that and laying flowers everywhere.

That day changed my husbands attitude. He said when you consider that we live and work at ground zero for the whole world, nothing else matters. There are those who would love to see Washington D.C. taken out. It is unlike any other capital in the world.

The United States is unlike any other country. We bitterly argue over our politics and our beliefs and love a good fight. Our history has shown when you kick us we come up fighting. We pull together and unite, filled with the love we have for our country and our families.

We are willing to lay aside our differences for the greater good and rally behind those who need us.

There were many in our church who had to be counseled due to the guilt they felt in not being at their desks that morning. We watched as the bodies were removed. We cried when a person was found alive and we cried when they brought another out who didn't make it.

One of the local volunteer rescue members at the station I volunteer at was in New York doing Rescue training. His wife later found out that as soon as the call went out he ran to the Trade Towers. When she didn't hear from him by the next day, she knew he was one of the many rescue members who lost their lives. She had just given birth to twin boys. She has since remarried and been able to put her life back together. We will be having a memorial on the 11th for all of those who lost their lives but especially for one of our own.

I think we came to finally realize how reviled and hated we Americans are by other countries. My brother was over seas at the time. He was appalled at the comments he was hearing. The upstart, arrogant Americans finally got what has been coming to them.

Makes me ill...............

[melissel]

This thread is making me cry too. I'm fine every year until the weather turns crisp. Then I get very anxious and depressed and it takes me a few days to figure out why. Every year. You'd think I'd remember by now.

DH and I drove through the Holland Tunnel into lower Manhattan at around the same time the first plane hit, but didn't hear or see anything. All I could think about later was that I was putting on eyeliner while people were dying less than a mile away. It wasn't until I got to work on Astor Place and walked into Starbucks that I heard people talking about the first plane. I actually chuckled a little, because I wondered what kind of dolt would make that mistake. I thought it was a small plane, and that it couldn't really be quite true. By the time I got back to my office, I overheard two people in the elevator talking about the second plane, and thought, "Sheesh! How quickly rumors get started!"

When I got upstairs, I couldn't get on CNN, but a few minutes later my phone rang, and it was my mother, who almost wept with relief when she heard my voice. That was when I realized how bad it really was. I often took the train into the World Trade Center station if I had errands to run before work, and my whole family knew that. My mom hadn't heard the news until she'd gotten a desperate call from my aunt trying to find me.

Then we were all stuck in the office for hours, terrified to leave. From the roof, I watched the smoke and chaos and walked away just before the first tower fell. When I went heard, I went right back up, and there was so much smoke it looked exactly like the tower was still there, but obscured. I thought it couldn't be true. Then I went back down to my desk and cried.

Finally we all started to trickle out of the office. Very limited subway service had started again, but no traffic was allowed below 45th Street, so I had to make my way up to meet DH, who had the car because he'd gone out to Queens for work. It was totally bizarre--midtown Manhattan with no traffic, hardly any people, no subways, all stores and restaurants closed. It was just like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. We made our way slowly up to his mom's house, and stayed there until evening, when we headed back to Jersey City. We could smell the smoke for weeks, and then for months afterward whenever it was damp or rainy, the smell would come back. We used to be able to see the towers from our front step, and Liberty State Park, where the rescue services were coordinated, was a quarter mile from our apartment. It was jarring to walk our door everyday and not see those towers. I "worked from home" for months afterward because I couldn't gather the courage to get on the PATH train (underground train between NY and NJ) to go into the city.

We decided to have our first baby not long after that, and she was so overdue, we thought we might have a 9/11 baby. Unfortunately, I was induced on 9/6, so she was born on 9/7. Three years later, at her birthday party, I went into labor with her sister, who was born naturally at 10:01 p.m. on...9/11. We think it's a fitting finger in the face of those who want to wipe us off the map :D It also takes some of the sting out of the memories for us.

I also have the honor of being able to say I was trapped in Manhattan during the blackout of 2003, trying to get home to my nursling in NJ. That was a fun day. Using a manual breast pump in a car full of strangers is not amusing :001_rolleyes:

[Closeacademy]

We were watching Barney when my dh called and told me to turn on the news because there something on the radio about it. I turned it on just as our tenants pulled up to pay us and we watched for a little bit. When I tuned in the towers were both still up and I thought that it was cessnas that had crashed into them.

I remember watching the towers fall. I remember the walls of pictures for the missing. It was all very overwhelming.

A friend of mine had her baby that day but I didn't meet her until a few weeks after this event.:001_smile:

[Karenciavo]

I was in Walt Disney World, scheduled to fly home that day. We kept our rental car and drove home, I'm glad we had one because there were none to be found by mid-day.

[MeanestMomInMidwest]

Sheesh!! Just reading this thread has me bawling!
:iagree:

[Dayle in Guatemala]

I was at home getting ready to school my dc when a friend called and told me to turn on the tv. We didn't have one! So I ran over to another friend's house and told her to turn on the news something is happening in NY. We sat there in unbelief for an hour before I realized my dh didn't know what was going on because he was at home with our dc. I went home and then we went to my parent's house to watch what was happening. We couldn't believe it!

I've lived in NYC and have friends who worked in the WTC. My church there had a lot of people who worked in the WTC. It was so personal to me. I wanted to make sure they were okay. It was an unbelieveable day. I remember at one point thinking that this must be the end of the world.

[kristavws]

I was freaking out in my living room, watching it all on TV. My mother, who has seldom left our home state, was in NYC on September 11 for work-related training. Neither my brother, nor I, were able to get in touch with her for several hours after the second tower came down.

Krista

[Mom to Aly]

I was at home, didn't have the tv or radio on, had no idea what happened. XH (at the time dh) had just come back early that morn from a business trip to Canada, and was sleeping, and I had turned off the upstairs phone. I went downstairs, and there was a message from my BIL and sister in NY, saying they were OK, not to worry. I had no idea what was happening. Then my brother called, hysterical, and I couldn't understand what was going on. He told me to go away from my dd, who was playing in her room, so I went in my bedroom and turned on the tv. I was just in time to see the second plane hit. I just sat, with tears rolling down my face--at the time, they said it was the beginning of World War III.

We had to pick up one of our cars from the mechanic later that day, and I guess I was in shock, didn't get it--we went out, took our dd to the park--we are in Richmond, VA--the streets were completely deserted--nobody anywhere!

I lost so many friends there, but I do have two miracle stories I have to list here--I had two friends who were married who worked in the first building. They were not there that day, because she went into premature labor; their first baby was born that afternoon :). Another friend of mine was assumed dead, because he worked in the first building as well, and no one could contact him; turned out he had gone home the day before, had the flu, slept through it all, got up 9 days later, didn't know what happened. Two happy stories :).

[Karin]

At home. First heard about it from my landlady (dh was starting his business & we were in a 3 family). Didn't really hit me until I saw the flag at halfmast later that day because it seemed so unreal on TV, but when I saw that flag half way down it became real and I cried.

[Sahamamama]

On my way to meet with a client (re: social work), when my sister called and told us to turn on the TV (had one back then). I left to meet the client and by the time I got there, she was in tears and the second tower and Pentagon had been hit. We sat and watched it all fall down.

[caitlinsmom]

I was getting ready for a job interview. I was antsy because it was a ritzy job for me. My brother and sister lived with us at the time so we were all going about our morning rituals. I had to call the woman who was doing my interview to confirm and she told me we would be cancelling and asked if I was watching yet. I had no idea what she was talking about.
We flipped on the tv and proceded to sit there and watch. My sis came home early from school that day and work was cancelled (I worked at a bank). My husband lost his job offer that we relocated for because of the attacks.
We lived near the Portland Or airport and it was so quiet. The whole city was weird to drive around. It seemed like everyone I passed was just as shell shocked as we were. Later when the airport was open again, i remember driving down I-84 and watching for miles the airplanes just hovering in the air waiting to land. It was so unreal.

[Willow]

I was up in the mountains on a camp with dd. We got back 2 days later laughing and joking about how the world could have ended and we would have known nothing about it..............

[akmommy]

I woke up and turned the radio on as usual. They were talking in detail about what Bush was doing, I thought to myself that this was odd. Then they started talking about airplanes falling from the sky and the last plane that could not be contacted. I went down and woke up DH with the news about the planes and we got back to the living room just in time to hear that the fourth plane had crashed. At that point we turned on the TV news and he called my mom. She was up but hadn't turned on the radio or TV yet.

I spent the rest of that day in shock.

[transientChris]

My husband had started a four month class on 9/10 that was in Ft. Belvoir, VA. We had all traveled with him from New Mexico as an extended field trip and the kids and I were going to spend three weeks in the DC area visiting historic sites and museums and then we were going to fly back home while he continued his class. On 9/11, we had dropped off dh in the base at around 7;30 and we started our journey to DC to go to the musuems. At around 7:50 or so, I turned off the tape we had been listening to and wanted to get traffic reports. We were in the HOV lanes on I-95. They were talking about a plane crashing into the WTC and how the weatehr was clear up there. I immediately recognized that there was an attack on us and started trying to move over to get into a position to get into a normal lane and get back to the base. Then the second plane crashed. I was really scared at this point. I knew we had to get into the base before the gates were closed. I didn't know when that would happen. THe morning rush hour was as usual awful and there was construction so it was hard to manuever. Wehn we were getting to the horrible Springfield interchange, we saw all of a sudden, a big billowing cloud of black smoke. I started crying. WE saw it before they announced it on the radio and we couldn't tell waht was attacked but we knew it was something in the Potomac River area like the Capital, White House or Pentagon. A few minutes or maybe even less than a minute later, the announcer said that it was the Pentagon. I managed to get on to the Beltway and then through back roads into Fort Belvoir. It had been an open base so it took them some time to get it closed and barricades put up. We went to dh's class building and they were all out of class and in the lounge looking at the tv. We saw the Towers fall. One of my husband's clasmates lost his wife who was also military and working at the Pentagon. We didn't know when it was ending. There were reports about bombs at the Stae Department and the USA Today building. Since we were sstaying in a hotel, we had to still go out to eat. Our cell phone coverage was out and even local phone lines were overloaded. I went to the library and notified friends back in NM that we were okay. Dh did the same with his bosses but they didn't look at their email so they called up frantically late at night when the phones finally were clear.

Then came anthrax scares (dh's class was visiting Congressional offices when one of those happened and had to be evacuated). We were at a museum and got evacuated because of a suspicious package. The following year, the Beltway Sniper was active and my dh kept having to go on trips to DC area and gas up his rental cars (including a white van once). Then we got a nutcase who decided to put pipe bombs around the West to make a smiley face. (I-40 was the smile and we lived less than a mile from it with the kind of mailbox he liked). Then we moved to Belgium and Madrid bombing happened a month before our planned trip there. A year later, we were going on a weekend trip to London and the day before we were supposed to go, the London bombings happened.

My kids haven't been shielded from any of this because they couldn't be. They saw the black smoke from the Pentagon as well as I did. My yongest was almost five at the time and my oldest was 14. Both younger children are considering careers in the military. And I know that the girls are worried about their Dad possibley getting a job at the Pentagon.

[JFS in IL]

So today is 9/11, dd and I have watched some of the replay on CNN. SO - bump to this thread.

[krazzymommy]

I remember the alarm going off and my dh was in the shower already. The alarm was set to radio and even though I was incoherent, I heard something about a plane crashing into the WTC. I remember jumping out of bed, running into the living room, jumping OVER the couch and turning the TV on. I remained glued to the TV for a few hours, went into work late and was glued to the radio and internet all day.

It is such a horrific memory. I am sombered when I read all of your posts and don't have much more to add. Today is a day to remember those whose lives were lost so tragically. May God be glorified through the lives and stories that continue to emerge from September 11, 2001. We don't understand this, but in the event that people may be drawn to Him because of it, then I praise Him for that.