September 11, 2001
Five years ago, the world changed completely for many people. New Yorkers were profoundly affected, but even here in Chicago, it was one of those mornings when time stopped. In my office, we were glued to CNN. It marked the start of significant financial hardship for my company, as it did for many small companies that were trying to get financing, but would now have much greater difficulty overcoming the barriers to getting deals done. Since no one knew what was going on,and Chicago hosts many tall, symbolic buildings, much of downtown was evacuated. My husband's small company had a branch in Boston and a branch in Chicago. Several engineers had flights out that morning from Boston to Chicago and were in the air when several other flights from Boston were ending in the most tragic way imaginable. They landed, not knowing what had happened, the immediately rented a car and drove back to Massachusetts. And everywhere you went, one set of images kept hitting you over and over.
To this day, many of Chicago's fire engines drive through the streets with a US flag waving off the back. A constant reminder of the sacrifice many people made in the course of just doing their jobs. It still gets to me a little bit when I see those flags wave by. On that day, like everyone else, I was profoundly shocked and devastated. I was also incredibly proud to be in a country that could handle such a terrible occurrence with grace and respect and committment. One where many everyday people became heros.
Tonight, I will sit on my deck and light a candle.
I will not forget.
Five years later and I still don't get tired of hearing peoples stories from 9/11. I don't think I ever will. I'm glad to hear that you'll be lighting a candle tonight, as should all Americans.
Beautifully said. Thank you.
Well said, Theresa. I get so frustrated with the current administration and I need to remember 9/11 for the tragedy of it and not the politics. Thank you for the gentle reminder.
As a Navy wife with a hubby (at that time) stationed at Great Lakes, work let me leave early. It was extremely odd driving the Edens at 11:00 or so in the morning, with practically nobody else on the freeway, heading home to Navy housing, where they then insisted I show my military ID before I could go home.....
WE should always remember these sorts of tradegdies, and not just America will be remembering. A lot of other countires lost people at 9/11 and remember with you.
I was also in Chicago 5 years ago and remember the fear of everyone who worked downtown. The Seras Tower was evacuated a number of times and left many ofthe workers with severe panic attacks. We all felt like it could happen anywhere and as much as we wept for all those who were hurt and killer, we also wept for the changed world.
I was teaching on a Marine base at the time. Within five minutes of finally hearing about it (took a while to get info going with the web essentially crashing), my 12-13 yo kids were walking up to me asking, "My dad has to go to war now, doesn't he?"
It was exceptionally heartbreaking.
I don't know anyone who doesn't remember where they were and what they were doing when the 9/11 tragedy struck. With sadness, I will always remember those whose lives were lost, and with pride, I will remember how America banded together to help those in need.
Five years ago today, I was working away at my home computer. I'm a freelance editor/writer. That morning, I logged on to Internet Explorer to do a bit of research. On the way to Google, I glanced at a pic of a plane crashing into an office tower. I thought it was a small private plane that had accidentally hit a building.
Soon, though, my friend Tina called and said, "You have to turn on the TV. What the f*** is going on." Tina almost never swore, so that got my attention. I raced to turn on CNN, and spent the next hours glued to it. I remember the absolute horror of it all as if it were today.
The memory of that morning is especially poignant because Tina had been diagnosed in July 2001 with Stage 3 ovarian cancer. She was engrossed in the developing news that day and was deeply affected by the many tragic stories that emerged in the following days. Despite living her own tragedy, she was as affected by the horror of 9/11 as the rest of us were.
She died in November 2003 at the too-young age of 45, leaving behind her soul mate and 9-year-old daughter, other family members and friends ... and me.
Seconding Jean's comments. There will be candles here in SoCal too; thanks for the idea. And a fervent prayer for peace.
thanks for sharing. my mom was diagnosed in March of 2001 with Stage 4 ovarian cancer. she passed away in October 2003 at the age of 66. too soon for us. I live in NYC and the years since 201 have been very tough for me. one of the reasons why I knit.
I posted a knitted expression of my horror knit during the week following the attacks.