My Memories of 9/11

Although I wasn't there in New York on that terrible day to see the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center fall, I still have vivid memories of what happened on that infamous day, and even now find myself choking back the tears as I recall the events as they happened.

11 September 2001 was to be my son's 21^st birthday, and I was rather sad to be working in Elkhart in Indiana, while he was in the UK, and therefore I was unable to see him.

However, I was all set to call him from my office soon after I got to work, but first I did what I usually did most mornings, and that was to get a mug of coffee and to check the London news on the internet.

A headline caught my eye, saying that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, and I thought that was just another of those stunts where the pilot of a light aircraft flew into the city and had made an error.

I realized quickly that this was a far bigger event, told a colleague in the next office to mine, and we headed off to the break room to turn the television on in there and see what was on the news.

There were already a few people in there watching, and by this time the second plane had just hit. We just stood there mesmerized in disbelief at what we were seeing, made even more unbelievable by the reports coming in that these were not light aircraft, they were fully laden airliners that had been hijacked.

The horrors just unfolded as a third plane hit the Pentagon, the fourth crashed in Pennsylvania, the towers fell one by one, and we could just not fathom how people could be so evil and monstrous, let alone do this and claim that it was in the name of their God.

Needless to say, very little work was done in the company that day, as happened in so many places in the USA.

I eventually managed to call my son, which was made difficult due to the international phone lines being jammed with calls, and he had cancelled his night out celebrating with friends, since nobody was in the mood to celebrate.

Over the coming weeks I spent many hours glued to the television, watching rescuers covered in dust frantically searching to try and find survivors. I spent a good deal of time online too, looking for news updates, hoping for miracles that never came.

I suppose there were two miracles that did happen on that day. Firstly the passengers on United Flight 93 recognized the need to take back control of the plane, and through their bravery another target in Washington DC was saved. Secondly, while watching the towers collapse I felt sure that there would be up to 50,000 people in there and that the death toll would be far higher. Amazingly enough, due to the timing of the attacks and the local elections that were taking place, there were far fewer people in the towers, and therefore (to me) a surprisingly low number of casualties.

I know people who were in New York and saw the towers fall, as well as someone who was in the Pentagon at the time it was hit.

Three years ago we made our first trip to New York and while there we visited what is now Ground Zero. Seeing the displays in the Visitor Center and in Saint Paul's Church just brought memories flooding back, and we were unable to talk, as we choked on our words as the tears fell down. It's the first time I have been to a museum or inside a church and seen boxes of tissues placed for the visitors to use.

These are my memories of 9/11, and I am sure many people can identify with them. Let us just hope that the progress that has been made in tackling terrorism and the progress towards peace in the Middle East are enough for terrible deeds like this to happen again.

Do you recall what were you doing on that terrible day?