Sunday, September 11, 2011

A Beautiful Sunday..... to remember

This is the day America changed ....forever.....for... always. The day that my comfort zone was disturbed, that day that I will always remember and never forget. Its engraved in my soul like a hot iron... branding life. I know where I was, I know what I was doing at that very moment, as well as almost every human being in the United States of America.

I was in shock, and for the first time in my life I really started to understand what it might be like to live in another country where fighting of this intensity went on daily. I watched, as did many others, the planes crash into the twin towers that day not wanting to believe. And I  just couldnt understand how this could happen to US, the United States of America.

I was working with one of my clients and his cell phone rang, he said a few things to the person on the other end of the phone and then hung up. He said, Michelle, turn on your tv to CNN, my friend just said that we should and that it was important. I turned it on and there we watched the first tower with a hole in the upper side of the building, smoke violently rolling out of the gaping hole.

We said nothing to each other, trying to make sense of what was happening and I guess digesting the possibilities. My mind was the optimistic one thinking that somehow a plane just flew too low and the instrumentation miscalculated something, somehow. We both sat there, honestly, sat there and said nothing to one another. Until we then viewed the 2nd plane slam into the next tower and the conversation flood gates broke loose....

We were now both speaking at the same time with thoughts of our own begging to make sense of what we were now seeing. Really, is this really happening? And then as the time passed another report, now of the pentagon being hit. My mind is now wondering where my children are and how I can get them home as quick as possible. I didnt know what to do first.

I began receiving calls from other clients that I would see that day reporting on what they had seen and their take on what we were experiencing and suddenly interjected into that was the next report of Alaquippa. Things became very still in the air, as if we were in the eye of the storm. I dont think I've ever experienced the sound of air silence before. You never really realize that so much is going on around you until all that is going on.. stops.

I then received a call from another client saying that she just saw and heard 2 fighter jets fly by her house in the opposite direction of Cleveland Air. Our thoughts were that they must be chasing someone. By this time the activity with the towers were being reported with the possibilities of terrorism, so seeing fighter jets fly by was alarming. Not more than 10mins later the jets flew back towards Cleveland and I really wanted to see my kids, now.

I still can't believe it, I don't think I will ever, really, understand how this happened to our beautiful America. How, Why...and why didnt we see it coming. America, the land of the free and the brave lulled into a false sense of security by what? By whom? Im not political in the slightest but this day made me think about the why's and the who's.

This is what I was doing on 9-11.......Where were you?

God Bless America ,

Michelle

1 comment:

paperpest said...

There had been a mayoral primary that day. I had voted and then I had gotten on a bus, I was planning to walk through a neighborhood that had beautiful trees. Someone listening to their radio said the towers were gone. I thought it was the start of a war. It was the end of a blissful time to live in the USA.