A Day We Can't Forget

It's Friday, 7:45am, September 11.

The sky is a bit overcast and my house is quiet still even though I am trying to rouse my boys for the day. There is a lot to do and think about. But my mind is going to one place.

Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

I lived in Minnesota at this time, just outside the Twin Cities. That morning the sky was the brightest blue. My husband was working out of town in Rochester, MN so the apartment was fairly quiet as I turned the tv on to watch the Today Show while I put my make-up on and got ready for work. It was within a few minutes of turning the tv on that I heard the anchors say something like, "Oh no. Not again." It was a surreal tone. I turned to see a plane crashing into one of the twin towers. I walked to my bed thinking it was a movie trailer they were airing for the first time. Quickly realizing it was no movie but actually the second time that morning that a real plane really flew into the real towers. And I slumped to my bed in shock and horror.

I remember Donny calling me before I left for work asking me if I had seen or heard and if it was true. In 2001 we didn't have TV's or smartphones or computers in our pockets so he was verifying what he was getting on the radio. I confirmed and cried on the phone to him. At that point most major cities across the country were locking down and bracing for more because there were still planes in the sky and several weren't responding to air traffic control. Living so close to such a large metropolitan area that was home to a huge international airport and military base was both terrifying and slightly reassuring.

I remember trying to get a hold of my mom who worked in St. Louis. Cell service was not what it is today and so many people across the country were trying to get a hold of loved ones that phone lines were crashing. When I finally did she assured me that the part of the city she worked in was considered less of a target but that they were probably going to send them home, especially those that lived across the river.

At work we kept a small tv in the building on the news and, because the weather was so amazing, we kept the kids outside playing while each of us took turns being with the kids and watching everything unfold, crying together, praying, and doing our best to hold it together. I remember vividly a mother running into our center weeping, sweeping up her little girl and holding her so tightly and crying so hard she couldn't speak nor could sign her daughter out. And we all cried and nodded and took care of the details while she went to pick up her other child from school. This was a common occurrence that day.

The other two planes crashed at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania...how many more? How much more? People were jumping from the windows of the towers. I am sure many of us have that image seared in our brains. One tower collapses. Then the other. The images and sounds of people running and screaming, of first responders rushing into the chaos, bridges exiting the city filled with people walking, not cars...and the skies became quiet. Eerily quiet.

As I mentioned, being so close to an Air Force base and international airport, we were always hearing air traffic...and then we didn't. I can remember that day, after planes were grounded and our air space closed, seeing the first jets taking off. Again tears. We were at some kind of war. Our world would never be the same again.

I remember holding tightly to those around me. I remember a nation that came together. I remember people loving one another and weeping together. I remember public servants on the steps of the capitol building in DC singing "God Bless America."

I don't remember the exact timeline but it was weeks later, I remember an FBI agent coming into my work with a picture of a man, asking us if we had seen him. None of us had. The montessori school I worked in was in a strip of businesses that included a restaurant, dentist and gas station/mini mart. Others in the strip had seen him. He had lived in the hotel that was right next door for months while he took flying lessons in the city. He wasn't on a plane but was one of those training for that horrifying mission. I couldn't stop thinking and wondering how many time he had walked by us and we didn't realize. Had he watched us?

That day changed a lot for our collective nation but it changed everything for thousands of lives and families forever.

To the families of those lost; to the families of the first responders who gave everything on that day and who have since suffered unimaginable health complications; To the cities that are forever marked, literally, by the tragedy; to a nation that will never be the same...my heart weeps today with all of you...with all of us.

We will never forget.