I remember that day as clearly as if it were today. I was a younger mother with three young kids. I had the news playing on the television. I always watched Good Morning America, a news program. I was folding baskets of clothes and drinking my coffee.
My coffee that I drank was black and black would soon serve as a description for that day. September 11th it was. Black day in the world’s history.
We lost so many lives that day. I see people in other countries always dying and losing their lives, but until this day, Americans were not tragically affected as much as we were in our lifetime, with all that death and terrorism.
You sometimes take for granted that you are safe, that you are not going to be affected by what the world has going on. Unfortunately though, we, Americans were. I am an American and if I had been in another place in this world, this tragedy would still strike a sense of uncertainty, of being unsafe, and of loss. I cannot speak for the other parts of our world but I am certain tragedy no matter where, who is involved, or how it is in reference to us, we all are impacted.
I believe my naive sense of being safe in America left that day in September.
I was watching this tragedy unfold live on my American news program. Even my kids had a sense that something was really wrong. I remember calling my husband at his work and feeling so panicked and scared at the same time. He always tries to reassure me of things so he was desperately trying to make sense of what I was telling him at the very same time. He was in shock and he tuned in to news on the radio station he was listening to. It was so fresh and so new that I remember the news correspondents were trying to make a judgement as to what they were hearing . You could tell they were struggling to find the words to say what they were being told and what they were seeing for the first time. It soon turned to panic in their eyes and I found myself glued to the television. I was trying to come to terms with it all.
Never before had something like this and of the same magnitude happened in my lifetime. I was just all struck.
I think the hardest thing to watch was the many individuals that were jumping from the high-rise buildings and out of the windows to free themselves from being burned alive. That was terrible. I have no words to describe that. I had o take my young kids into another room so that they would not see me cry or see those poor helpless people choose the fate of their own lives. They would willing jump rather than BURN alive. How devastating is that. Imagine you were their loved ones and you saw them jump. The news replayed these kinds of scenes so much you felt like you knew every detail of those days following.
I think that I shall never look at another high-rise building the same. I now dread being in a hotel, even, that has many floors. Even though I was not in those buildings it has greatly impacted me.
Those Twin Towers were huge and those people , some of them, never had a chance to survive.
I still feel the impact of that all .
What kind of person does it take to bring such devastation to another group of individuals, that you do not know?
I often try to think of who all was in those buildings. I think of the child who might had been visiting their father or mother at work. I think of the mother who lost her child or children to this event. I also think of the many people who realized they were not going to make it and what went through their minds as they accepted their fate.
It is so sad and disheartening to know that those people, their families and their friend’s lives were so abruptly changed forever. They will try to go on with their daily lives but the world will remind them always of that day. They will see it on the television all the time and read it in the papers and books and magazines. They will never get a chance to let it rest.
They will have mourning for their lifetime.
I am so sorry for that. I have a hard enough time with personal mourning of a loved one myself. To see that magnified would be so unbearable.
As if life came to a stand still, that day back in September 11, 2001, I saw one of the saddest events that forever will shake our minds, our security, and our faith. I saw a nation come together, but I also saw it crumbled just a little more. I lost hope in some of humanity that day as well. Those who did this horrendous thing, they are not human in my mind. They were cruel.
I hope we all learn something from this tragedy. I hope we became stronger together because of it. I also hope that everyone knows we are not guaranteed a tomorrow and we should live fully today.
As on September 11, 2001, I will remember, and so will all of America and even beyond.
We all should stand together, less we all fall.
Thanks for reading!
MwsR ❤
Memorial 9-11 tshirts are available on Amazon. Click link below
Books about 9-11 , click link below
9-11 Memorial stuff, click link below
It’s all so surreal now. How has 17 years gone by? I still feel all of those same emotions flooding back, looking at these photos, reading your post. I still can’t wrap my mind around the pure evil.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was an attack on liberty of the entire West, on freedom of religion, on our values. Having grown up with terrorism, well, welcome to our world yet nobody has ever experienced it on this scale. It also changed how we bank and we here in South Africa were instantly slapped with draconian FICA banking laws.
And some of us had people over there, a young friend is married to a NY state trooper. She narrowly escaped this as she was pregnant and on her way to a check-up when her doctor called and cancelled, as he felt off-colour and didn’t come in that day. That is how a South African woman was in Central Park when this all happened.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for remembering. As bad as that day was, it is actually nothing compared to the day of the Lord’s wrath and vengeance. 9/11 was just a wake up call.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your Welcome dear.
❤️✌️
BY FOR NOW
LikeLiked by 1 person
thank you
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nicely written post dear, 9/11 is a sad day for all of us that we’re around on that day.
❤️✌️
BY FOR NOW
LikeLiked by 2 people
thank you
LikeLike
You are correct, one does not have to be an American or directly touched, to be greatly impacted.
LikeLiked by 2 people
❤️🙏🏻
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was an awful day and one does not need to be American or to have lost somebody to have been affected on some level. Obviously not affected as much as those, but affected.
In the UK the two major TV channels went live to New York just after the first plane hit and stayed live through the rest of the day, with intense coverage for several days afterwards. I remember where I was, who I was with and my mental and emotional state for a few days afterwards.
My prayers go to those who were personally affected by the tragedy and also to the firefighters, police, service men and women, and brave members of the public who did what they could.
LikeLiked by 2 people