springdellgirl

September 11th


I woke up this morning to a beautiful sunny September day and it reminded me of another beautiful sunny September day...eight years ago. I remember it so clearly. Kameron was a baby and had been up quite a bit the night before with a cold. I was still asleep when Tyler was getting ready for work. He had the Today show on and had been listening to it while getting ready. Suddenly Tyler burst into our bedroom and said "The Pentagon has been bombed!!" I remember being groggy and not fully comprehending what he was saying. I remember asking "Who did what?" and he said it again and hurried back into the living room. I stumbled out of bed and into the living room and stared at the TV in horror and then the first plane hit the World Trade Center. I remember not comprehending what was going on. I remember the confusion of Matt Lauer and Katie Couric as they were trying to explain to viewers the breaking news in New York City. Then we watched the second plane hit. Tyler and I just stared in complete disbelief at what we were witnessing. We were confused and trying to process what was going on as we watched the towers smoking and emergency crews rushing in. I remember thinking "It will be ok. Those people will get out."

Work was forgotten, breakfast was forgotten, at some point Kameron began to cry and we picked him up brought him out to the living room, Reilly woke up and joined us. I remember her as a little 4 year old asking us what was happening and not being able to articulate to her what was going on. We just huddled together...our little family of four...and stared at the TV. I remember the flames and suddenly people were jumping out of windows and I couldn't believe I was seeing people falling to their deaths and then the Today show stopped broadcasting those images and it seems like only seconds later that the buildings collapsed. I remember looking at Tyler and asking him "Could anyone survive that?" and he just sadly shook his head.

What sadness followed...images that will haunt me for the rest of my life. People running for their lives away from the towers, people injured and staggering around New York, family members with pictures asking anyone and everyone if they had seen their loved ones, walls covered in pictures of the missing, a field in Pennsylvania, the Pentagon with a gaping hole, rescue workers at Ground Zero, and American flags flying.

September 11, 2001 was the day my life changed. My priorities, political viewpoint, patriotism, and my spirituality. They all changed and took on new significance in the course of one terrible morning. I have never been the same since. I wake up on this beautiful September morning filled with gratitude for my God, my family, my country, my beliefs, and my freedom.