A TRIBUTE TO 9/11

[needy]

Wow I didn't notice this thread until today. This is so beautiful. Mad for Marty, I am so sorry you lost a friend that day.

I grew up in NYC and can remember when the towers were being built.
When ever I traveled and came in view of the towers many miles away, I knew I was home. My hubby proposed to me at the Windows of the World restaurant. When I graduated from college, I got a job working in a firm in the WTC. I spent ten years working there and had a great time. Worked with the nicest people who became family to me.
I had all these great memories of good times and a successful career.

I was there for the 1993 bombing. It was a bad experience walking down the stairs in the complete darkness but people worked together that day and co-workers became very protective of each other. Once the WTC was restored, I went back to work with this very false sense of bravado thinking that I can survive anything and no one will ever hurt me. My husband and family hated me working there and always worried for my safety.

Then when we had the opportunity to move we left the city. On September 11th I put my Kindergartner on the bus and went for a walk with my head phones on. I actually was thinking about how great I felt for my child to live in a world that I felt safe and without worries. I remember worrying about nuclear war and the Russians when I was younger. Then in my walk the DJ broke in to announce that a plane hit one of the buildings. I thought it was a small sesna or something. I remember sometimes looking out the window and seeing small planes fly over the water at the same level as the floor I worked on. I was worried and hoped everyone was ok. Then when he said the second plane hit I ran home.

I couldn't get through to my mother in NYC 'cause all lines were busy. I watched in horror as they burned and people fell. Then a neighbor called and said that one of the towers fell when I was in another room. I told her that she didn't know what she was talking about and that from a certain angle it looks like there is only one tower. Just then the second building collapsed and I lost it.

I thought everyone I knew that worked in that area was gone. I thought it toppled over and 20 - 30 thousand people were gone.
It was the most horrible moment in my life.

Days that followed I kept searching for names of the missing. I figured it was easier to make sure no one I knew was missing than trying to account for everyone''s wellbeing. I ended only knowing one friend and one neighbor from my mother's street where I grew up. I had a very hard time for many weeks. In a strange way I had survivors guilt and it rocked me to the core that
back in 1993 that was their real intention. That false sense of bravado I had just withered away.

I remember every day what happened and I can not view any footage of that day. I did go to the WTC that early December but avoided visiting my mother for a long time 'cause just going to the city made me so full of emotions.

The people that worked there were just ordinary people doing their jobs. None of them had anything to do with what those cowards are so hateful to American for. The lost lives are so awful.

It may sound strange but I even mourn the building themselves. Every evening I left work I would have to walk outside and every single night for ten years I would look up. I was always in awe of standing right next to them. They were beautiful not just for their structure but what they represented: possibilities, community, success, accomplishment, etc.......

[lisafaith]

Well, it's September 14th and I just saw this thread. Shy, Nancy...I just watched the video and I am sitting here wiping the tears. What an intense image, and what a brilliant song for the moment.

Thank you so much for allowing me the privilege of watching it. My thoughts were very much of loss and sadness on Monday. An old friend's brother died in the WTC that day. I had not seen him since he was about six years old. That's the way I remember him. That's how I think of him on that day, in that building.

I just wanted to express my gratitude and to say they will never be forgotten.

Lisa

[ndavis021410]

Bumping this.

Reflection time is upon us once again. New fans here to give new prospectives to 9/11.

For me, the memory is just like it was then, shocked, horror, and fear for the lives of too many people.

Please, let's all come and share again, our thoughts, our prayers, and our memories for this date, this date that will never be forgotten

Nancy

[Cheza]

I was teaching Broadcast Journalism I & II on the morning of the tragedy. My students and I were in our television studio at the high school complex. We were having trouble with the editing bays, so while I was fighting with them we had turned the radio on for some tunes and the kids were sitting behind me visiting with one another. All of a sudden a DJ broke in with news that the WTC and the Pentagon had been hit by planes. I heard a bit of the initial announcement...enough for me to know to tell the kids to be quiet and listen.

Maybe we weren't supposed to say anything, no one told us anything, but before I knew it one of my kids, Brian, was running down the hall to tell the other teachers who promptly turned on their Channel One TVs, which did not have cable but could pull in a grainy picture of the horror in NYC. That grainy image of the Towers in snowy black and white with smoke pouring out was the first image I saw of the damage. Oddly, it seems appropriate. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion that day. I don't know how we made it through the rest of the day...it happened during first block.

It seems the librarian, who did have cable in her area, had the television on in the library and students were in there, so some saw the horrific images full throttle as the events unfolded.

A old friend from high school's brother was in one of the Towers for a training meeting with Morgan-Stanley, but he managed to escape before the Towers collapsed. I'm so sorry to hear of some of your personal losses in this tragedy.

Brian, the one who delivered the news down the hall, died in Iraq in a helicopter crash. He was a Marine. He had earned two purple hearts and was awarded another one posthumously when he died at the age of 21.

[dawn]

I've just found this thread and have to say, am sat here with tears in my eyes for you all.

I was at work when I heard, it was the afternoon and one of the guys on a site phoned me to tell me what had happened, I told him not to be so sick, as things like that don't happen, then I got told again. It didn't hit me until I saw the images that one of the guys pulled up on his computer (he was the only one with the internet in his office) and we went straight to CNN - it was unbelievable.

There was a sense of worry in the UK, what could we do? Where would be hit next? Why did this happen? Radio stations seemed to play Imagine non-stop on the stations.

[redjasper]

I was living in downtown Toronto - had moved there in May after I left my marriage. I didn't have a TV. I first heard something at about 10:30 in the morning when I was in my health food store. The cashier saying something to a customer about the horrible tragedy. She was almost in tears. She was wondering how many people were actually in their offices when it happened. I left the store and walked the one block back to my townhouse. Two men in front of me were commenting on how unbelievable it was that a structure like that could come down. My first thought was the CN Tower in Toronto. I had no other reference point to what had really happened. When I got home I turned on the radio and called my close friend who lived nearby. I went to his place. He didn't have a TV either. He'd learned about it from the guy at the security desk in his building. We went for a long walk in our neighbourhood. We were mostly silent as we walked. The city seemed to be much more quiet than usual.

I didn't see anything on TV until a month later, when I was walking through a department store. All the TVs were displaying the highlights of the planes crashing and the buildings coming down. I felt numb and sick, and yet I stood there for about 5 minutes, just watching about 20 TVs replaying this most devastating criminal act that led to the loss of so many innocent lives. It will sound strange, but I felt that I should see it - that if I didn't maybe a certain denial would set in.

I'm not sure what else to say today except that life unfolds in a sometimes amazing and sometimes horrifying way. We don't always have a hand in the direction of the minutes as they unfold. Yet we somehow know that spirits rise above the darkness and that the goodness of people's souls is the bright light that stays through the black night.

I'm not a religious person, and this will sound like a prayer. Well, maybe it's okay that I say a prayer. It's from the heart. May a calm peace be with all who have been touched by the tragedy on September 11, 2001 and on any one of the moments that have passed since then.

[aussiefan]

I remember exactly where I was. In Australia it was night time, around 11pm when the news reached us. I was on night shift working in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) in Melbourne's biggest hospital.
It was a really sad week for Mick and I as his father was very sick and in another ward at the same hospital and all my breaks and meal times were spent with Vince (Mick's dad) and his family was there 24/7.

When the news came thru we were all in total disbelief. Every TV in the wards were tuned in and our eyes were glued to the screens. I ended up being awake for nearly 36 hours those few days as Vince died on September 12 in the early hours of the morning with all of us around him. We were all totally washed out with 9/11 and Vince's death in a 36 hour period.

I will never forget those 2 days, they were extremely tough days for us. We had a friend that works in the WTC and we had been trying to phone his wife non stop but couldn't get thru, we needed to know that Walt was safe, we finally found out he had a late start that day and was lucky he wasn't at work, but he lost many good friends.

Sept 11th is my birthday and altho people say to me you should celebrate life and not death and feel good on your 'special' day it just doesn't feel right to me to be having fun on this day when so many people are mourning their losses. I usually put my birthday on hold til the weekend and celebrate then. Feels like the right thing to do for me anyway.

My heart goes out to all the families of the victims and especially those that just cannot move on with life because of this terrible event.

Love and peace to all

Helen

[Mad For Martay]

pamjcarty said:

This day is forever etched in our minds......
I had just sent two of my boys out the door to school.....I had just sat down to feed my then 6 month old baby boy....I popped on the TV....I was watching the Today show...what I saw was something that I thought was an accident....but how? How did such an accident happen....that was the question going through my mind.....and then I saw the second plane hit....I was horrified to witness such terror.....then the reports start coming out that it wasnt an accident....My brother in law had called to tell me what was going on....he is a Marine....at that time was when he said there were a couple more planes that had been hijacked......
soon after that phone call came the Pentagon and United Flight 93........I remeber walking out my front door totaly numb to the world around me.....I walked up the street and removed my two kids from school....called my husband to come home....because in my mind if this was going to be the end of the world.....I wanted to be with my family.......
On the way home from work my husband recieved a phone call from a friend of ours......he was trapped inside The World Trade Center.....his voice would just send shivers down your spine....to listen to horror in his voice....after a few minutes the phone went dead and that was the last we ever heard from him...he was gone with the rest of them.........
This day all Americans should remember 9/11....not just today but everyday....for it has changed our nation as we know it....

This day is still so sad for me to deal with........
It has changed me forever....

[sjjo1973]

I still can't believe it was 6yrs ago, it seems just like yesterday. I was at work, it seemed like time stood still. A once busy morning of calls seem to silence as the news spread. Within the call center it was like whisper down the lane as we all got the news. We have several service men/women in our office, they started to prepare ASAP for battle. Many who have family/friends in NY or WTC franctically trying to reach them. I still was not believing what I was hearing, it did not hit me til I got home and saw the images on TV. I started to grieve for all those who could not reach their loved ones, fearing if they were dead or alive. I still get teary eyed thinking about this tragic day in our nation. The days/weeks/months that followed were even tougher as our call volume jumped at work for those seeking counseling which made me even more sad.

To all of you who have had losted a loved one to this tragedy, know that you are in my heart and thoughts.

[jillywilly65]

My prayer,

O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain!

America America God shed His grace on the
And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea.



Help me to never forget, help me to make a difference.

[Cheza]

Here's a link to an older story about my friend's brother who survived the attacks:

www.kait8.com/global/Story.asp?s=5392123

Peace.

[dawn]

Bumping.

I wanted you all to know that all of us here in the UK have not forgotten you or what happened on that day.

Thinking of you all.

[keysunset]

Thank you dawn.

One of the most powerful interviews I've seen is with a rabbi who uses as a text to chant and remember the victims of 9/11 their own last words from answering machines and 9-1-1 calls.

Not for the faint hearted and have tissue nearby, and if you don't want to watch the whole thing, move the button down toward the end where he is standing in front of a window:

www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/faith/etc/1_lo.html

eta: the Blue Man Group's Exhibit 13 exhibit video. Also very powerful and moving:
exhibit13.com/

[jillywilly65]

Lord help me never forget.

[dawn]

It's that time of year again when we remember those lost on that fateful day.

On the TV this morning they showed some of the plans for the memorial museum going up at ground zero.

My thoughts are with you all today.

[keysunset]

Thanks for the thoughts, dawn. I really appreciate that.

There is not a week that goes by that we don't make some mention of 9/11 in our household. Sometimes it's watching an old movie set in New York and seeing the towers there. Sometimes it's seeing some of the people that were with me when I heard about the towers being hit and remembering how stunned we all were.

I remember on my way taking OO to school putting money into firefighters' boots as they were collecting for the families of those who died in the line of duty. I did that many times, hoping my little drop in the boot would be of some help.

Too many things to remember from 9/11 and the days that followed.

It's still gut wrenching for me to watch that video of the rabbi chanting the victims last words:
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/faith/etc/1_lo.html