9/11

As I drove Hope to preschool this morning, I turned the radio on and listened to the many post-live air-time of many radio stations during the 9/11 attacks of 2001. It had a different meaning this year or maybe it was my setting, whatever it was, it struck me and left me with tears. I am guessing that I wasn't the only motorist with tears streaming down their faces while also trying to drive.
I remember the day almost completely, all except what class I finished and which class I skipped! I stopped at home briefly between classes all because I lived basically across the street from my graduate school, Palmer. I turned on the TV for a brief moment while making a snack. The tragedy started to unravel on the TV in front of me. The first thing I did was called Michael, my husband, boyfriend at the time, to see if he knew of any of his family in the city at the time. The first tower was struck, then the second. Next the pentagon was struck, and lastly a bird was in the air high-jacked somewhere over New Jersey or Pennsylvania. I remember feeling incredibly anxious to the point of calling my parents and asking them what I should do. I wanted to get into my car and drive home to see them. For all I knew, we were going to war here in the US, heck I didn't know if I could even make it home, maybe I would be caught up in who knows what. Our biggest scare was living so close to the Rock Island arsenal, we figured that was going to get bombed at any moment. From that point on, life has changed for me, for everyone.
The reason I brought these memories up is to share a bit of history with my girls. Year after year I might start to forget things and that day is a day to not forget, a day marked in history. God Bless those whom lost their lives, their family, their friends...