I remember that morning like it was yesterday. I was sitting on my couch feeding Morgan (she was just a baby) and talking to my twin on the phone. It was a typical morning in our house...come to think of it, it was also a nice and quiet morning. Looking back, having only 3 kids...no thought of anything bad that was about to transpire. It's so weird to think of how simple life was before that moment the first plane...no...the moment the second plane hit the second tower. I say that, because when we heard that a plane hit the first tower, we all though (well, hoped) that it was a fluke...a plane that had an accident. As we were watching the news the thought crossed our minds that maybe it wasn't a fluke, maybe it was terrorist...but no...we just couldn't fathom the idea that all those people were trapped from the 80th-something floors on up. I kept wondering how they were going to save those people...there was no way. All those people...then the thought of the people from the plane....gone...what were they thinking...feeling.
Then...as we were watching the morning news, as the cameras were pointing up on the twin towers....you can see a big second plane coming into view...OH NO...I screamed. Then BAM. we witnessed the second plane hitting the second tower. It was like watching a make believe movie on TV...but it was so real. At that point, we all knew. We knew we, America, was under attack. Then the reports came in that the pentagon got hit...Was it world war 3?
I was calling my mom/dad & sisters crying...wondering what would be hit next. Then word came that there was a hijacked plane that flew over Cleveland....OMG...thats right over us! I called my sister, who lives in PA and told her to be careful because the plane was heading towards PA. What was next? I remember trying to keep calm in the mist of everything going on because of the kids, but it didn't really work. I remember the news reports of one thing after another...then they showed the airways of the united states....not a single plane was in the air....this way, they could see what plane(s) were being hijacked. I remember being afraid to go outside...but Tony and I did. I looked up in the sky and there was silence. Not a plane in sight...and we live not to far from the airport. What was happening? What was going to be next? Then...watching the towers burn on TV and noticing that the smoke billowing out of the top floors looked different then before...I told Tony that I thought the building was going to collapse...minutes later, before my eyes, the first tower started to fall. All those people, all those innocent people. People that went to work that day not knowing that that was the last day of their lives. All those emergency workers, police officers, port authority, women who were mothers, wives, sisters daughters...men who were fathers, husbands, brothers, sons....what if there were pregnant women killed? what about those that were planning their weddings? What about those that had to take care of a special needs child? Gone just like that. It was the longest day in my life. I was upset about all those people on the planes that were traveling without a thought....the evil that took over those planes had no thought about human life. They were pure evil. To take over the planes the way they did...all those innocent people...and God know what they all went through on those plane rides to their demise. Those people that were in their offices at the pentagon and the towers...when those planes hit...what He** they went through either trying to escape or being trapped...and then finally...the heroes on flight 93 that went down in PA...wow.
My/our lives has drastically changed from this horrific day ten years ago. Since then, we've had 5 more kids, I became a stay at home mom, lost a child, and now raising a child with many special and chronic needs. I have come to appreciate life and understand that life is short. I respect and thank often police officers, firefighters and anyone who is or has served in the military.
Life has moved on and has gotten more complex but more complete since that day. America has changed. I notice that there is more point and blame and a lot less God. Which to me is not what our founders of this nation or the victim of 9-11 wanted or ever thought would be possible. If we allow our nation to be split into groups and have no mention of God...any God...we are letting "them" win. Our country was based on diversity of cultures and ideas...but our basis for everything was/should still be...God.
I want our kids to grow up in a great nation...not one of conflict, fright or hate.
GOD BLESS AMERICA
And no...I have not been on a plane since then...
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