September 11,2001....where do I begin? As the 10 year anniversary approaches, I am remembering that day, and the days and weeks that followed...what was I worried about on that day? what was my biggest fear up to that day? I remember going to a friends house that morning, I was taking her and her daughter to the dr. I remember walking in her house and she saying " come here, look at the news!! A plane just hit the world trade center" I thought, no way, this can't have happened, must have been a mistake, mechanical error, then as I watched a live feed on the news, the second plane hit the other tower.... I knew then that we had been attacked, I stood frozen, my mind racing, but then, we had things to do. So we loaded the kids into my van and off to the dr we went, on our way i had the radio on for updates of course. I was not prepared for what I heard next... you joke about family that doesn't live nearby and how that it's for a reason, but I would have given anything that day to have my uncle living in LA instead of DC and working at the pentagon... I was on canal blvd when I heard " a plane just hit the pentagon" I don't know how i stayed focused and didn't wreck my vehicle... I pulled over into a parking lot and called my mother... when she answered all i could do was cry out "Mom!" and she had just heard also... it was a long week before we heard from them up there that they were ok...I remember staring at the television for a glimpse, a word.. anything, nothing came. I remember my sons 9, 7, and 1. and trying to explain to my 9 year old what we were witnessing, poor guy didn't understand it at all... first night we had it on, there was nothing else to watch on television for a few days, they showed a man jumping out of the world trade center, my son was young, didn't understand, he laughed... I knew then that it was my job to protect them from the evils of the world, and make them strong enough to handle what life threw at them. Now, here we are 10 years later, and my 9 year old has turned into a 19 year old, and became the strong young man I knew he could be....he is an Airman First Class in the United States Air Force. And I couldn't be prouder...
In the weeks after 9/11, we could hardly erase the vision of the wreckage of the two towers, the twisted steel and sheets of glass, the images of men and women leaping from ninety-odd stories up, the knowledge that thousands lay beneath the ruined buildings. The only things that kept most of us from falling apart were our families. I can remember exactly what I was doing and I remember seeing the live footage also when tower 2 was hit. I thought of the responders and bystanders automatically b/c I knew what was to happen next. I didn't get emotional at first b/c it was not in my nature to do that. Respond first, deal with the emotions later. Everyone reacts differently and Val your son is being one of the honorable ones that may be a product of such a gruesome attack. Kudos to you and him and the rest of your family for the daily sacrifices made.
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