Where were you went it happened?

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   Kenna McHughposted 4 years ago

   
   “The head of a company survived 9/11 because his son started Kindergarten. Another man was alive because it was his turn to bring donuts. One woman was late because her alarm clock didn't go off on time. Another was late, stuck on the NJ Turnpike because of an accident and his life was spared. One missed his bus. One spilled food on her clothes and had to take the time to change. One's car wouldn't start. One couldn't get a taxi. One went back to answer the house phone. A man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning developed a blister before he got to the Towers, so he stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid.
   When you're stuck in traffic, oversleep, miss your ride...all the little things that annoy you...maybe you're exactly where you're meant to be at that very moment. May all who perished on 9.11.01 Rest in Eternal Peace & may the loved ones still grieving find strength.”
   — Elizabeth Gallo

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      Marie Flintposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      I remember watching the crumbling towers on television and wondering whether I was observing the onset of WWIII. We have the coronavirus instead.

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      Kenna McHughposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      I don't think any of us will forget where we were and what happened that day.

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      jansharesposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Powerful painting. Hard to look at it without feeling awful inside.

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      Miebakagh57posted 4 years agoin reply to this

      I was busy in my office.

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   theraggededgeposted 4 years ago

   Cuddling my brand new baby. She had just been delivered by c-section about 90 minutes before.

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   NateB11posted 4 years ago

   I was at work. I worked for a program taking people with disabilities out into the community and we met at the University everyday to go on outings from there. I was in one of the halls and heard people talking about something and I could tell something very scary was happening but didn't know at all what it was about. My girlfriend called me on the cell phone worried about me and she told me what happened. Everywhere I went that day people were talking about it, had radios and TVs on watching/listening to news about it. Surreal day.

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   Readmikenowposted 4 years ago

   I was actually on the phone with an editor who lived in New York.  She told me her daughter was screaming about something serious happening on the news.  She said she had to go.  The article I proposed didn't get approved.  I was okay with it.  I understood.  I learned later she lost some loved ones that day.  Yeah, it's a day I'll never forget.

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   abwilliamsposted 4 years ago

   My husband had left for work  I had two boys that had already left for high school.
   The news was on, but per usual, I was only halfway paying attention  to it, when the first tower was hit.
   My daughter, who was in middle school at the time, was still at home with me.
   At first I was like everyone else...was it an accident?
   Then, the second plane flew into the second tower and we all knew, it wasn't an accident.
   I held my daughter close, we cried, we prayed. She made the choice to go to school.
   I drove her there, told the security officer (who had no idea what was happening) and he sprinted toward the front office.
   I can remember every little detail from that morning, to this day.

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   Ladymermaidposted 4 years ago

   One of the saddest and most frightening days in my memory.

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   jansharesposted 4 years ago

   I still cannot look at the footage of the towers being struck, black smoke billowing before I have to turn away. That feeling will never leave, the visuals are seared in emotional memory.
   
   I was home getting ready for work as I watched the news. When the second one hit, I knew it was bad. I went to work anyway, looking at this tragedy as a New York thing. I worked on Capitol Hill, nine blocks from the Capitol. Within the hour the Pentagon was hit. I remember saying with tears in my eyes, 'this is WWIII.' At this point there was speculation that either the White House or the Capitol was next. So my boss told us to pack up and go home. People were scrambling in the neighborhood. It was a horrible feeling of doom. I got in my car and drove home. It was a beautiful, sunny Tuesday, a surreal drive. For years I was afraid of bright, sunny Tuesdays.
   
   When I got home, I couldn't get anybody on the home phone. It was out. I kept listening for planes overhead. I continued to watch the news and saw the towers fall and the Pentagon burning. I finally got my husband on the phone, he was watching the Pentagon burn from his office window.
   
   (Sigh) Okay, I'm done. Don't want to re-live this anymore. Thanks for the question, Kenna. Condolences to those still grieving and for the lives lost.

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      Kenna McHughposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Jan, Thanks for sharing. There are so many stories.

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         jansharesposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Indeed. You're welcome.

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   davrowpotposted 4 years ago

   I was 2-3 years old (I was born in 1998, in the Philippines), playing outside. I could vaguely remember the whole thing, but it was a sunny day (or a cloudy one) and I stumbled upon a house with an open door. The people inside were watching the news. I wasn't particularly interested in television back then, especially in news. But I stopped outside their door and watched their television with a news about buildings burning and going down to rubble. I might have stayed there for, like, 15-30 seconds to watch what was happening, trying to read and understand what the words were written in the news, staring as if I was mesmerized by the action that was going on. And then I resumed playing and got home.
   
   Years later, I learned that the thing I watched that moment was me watching the 9/11 incident.

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      Kenna McHughposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      That was an impactful account of your life experience for a 2 - 3-year-old child.

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