My Random Thoughts...

9.11.01

I remember it clearly. The ideal fall morning. Not too cold, not too hot. The sky was perfectly clear. Not one single cloud. Flawless. Steve was at OSHP in a training class. I was doing laundry feeling guilty because I should have the girls outside on such a beautiful day. Makenna was 2 1/2, Maddie was 6 months old. The girls were playing in the family room, I was half-heartedly watching the morning news. Maybe we'd go out to swing after I get the laundry folded. At five till, I put in a video for Makenna. Steve called me a few minutes later and told me to turn on the news. The first plane had hit. We hung up. I remember clearly some of the news reports thinking this was an accident. Maybe one or two of them said something about, could it be possible, a terrorist attack? I was watching when the second plain hit. All speculation was gone, this was no accident. Who is this Osama bin Laden, guy? Third plane crashes in DC, a fourth is missing. I remember it turned around somewhere over Cleveland area. All flights are grounded. No one knew how bad this was going to be. Steve calls. One-by-one all the officers from all the different agencies were called in. He was on mandatary 12 hour shifts, at the minimum, indefinitely. I watched both towers fall. I remember watching all those firemen and police going into the buildings, while everyone was streaming out. That’s the way they are. Not because it’s their job. But because that’s WHO they are, it permeates every fiber of their being, in all aspects of their life. I remember the reports of the PA plane and crew. Their bravery in the mists of sheer horror. I remember afterward the eerie quiet of the skies. And I remember noticing for the first time, weeks later, that a plane was flying over head.