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#1526 | Thursday, August 8th 2002
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I will never forget it, I was in homeroom, talking to a friend when our principal came on the intercom and said we had a national tragedy and that 2 planes had crashed into the WTC. At first we all thought they were just accidents. Then, when I went to my next class, my teacher had on the TV and we all watched live as the towers collapsed and knew that they were not accidents. All we did all day was watch the TV, in every class. Even now, as I look back on a test I was taking as the planes were crashing into the towers, I think back to where I was when I was told about the terrorist attacks.
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Brittany | 15 | Connecticut
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#1484 | Wednesday, July 17th 2002
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I was at work preparing to teach a prenatal exercise class. It was the first day of a new class session, and I was looking forward to meeting my new students.
A co-worker approached me and said that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center Towers. I didn't believe him. My immediate thought was of an amateur pilot losing his or her way, an accident. As I walked from the pool area to the front office of our facility,another co-worker approached me and said that two planes had hit the World Trade Center buildings. I remember thinking of the kid's game we used to play called "gossip." One person whispered a message, and the message would be repeated down the line of kids with the last in line repeating what they heard. The end result was never the same as the beginning message.
Walking through the club almost everyone I met either asked if I had heard the news, or gave me another piece of information. I started to feel a little afraid because each bit of news made me realize we were dealing with something more than pilot error. Although my husband's office is located in midtown Manhattan, I decided to call him. I was unsuccessful reaching him on his cell phone.
To my great relief he answered his office phone immediately. He said they had no cell service, no television, and could only receive incoming calls on their land line phones. His office was gathering information via the radio, and from whatever people were telling them via phone. I asked him to come home, but he said he felt he should stay put until they had a better idea of what was happening. This was at around 9:50 a.m. I had no choice but to teach my class. Only one student showed up. It was the longest hour of my life.
At the close of instruction at 11:00 a.m., I phoned home to check my answering machine. There were messages from our relatives in Califorina, and a heart-breaking message from our twelve year old son calling from school to inquire about his dad. I couldn't get through to the school via phone, so I raced across town to see him. There was almost no traffic, and my foreboding grew. The school hallways were eerily silent, and the hall in front of the administration office was filled with parents waiting to check their kids out for the day. A police officer was onsite with our school's social worker to calm frayed nerves.
I stood in the hallway waiting for my son to arrive from class. He had been summoned by the social worker, and it occurred to me that he might think something terrible had happened. The minute I saw him walk out of the classroom, I started doing jumping jacks in the middle of the school hallway to let him know that the news was GOOD. He said, with more than a little false bravado, " I knew Dad was okay. I know I sounded kind of scared on the answering machine,
but I really wasn't." I replied, "You are much braver than I am because I was scared to tears!" He wanted to come home, but I told him it was better to stay at school and try to keep a routine. I did not tell him that I preferred that he not observe me freaking out the rest of the day until his father returned home. It is an hour drive from
NYC, and there are many waterway bridges to cross on the route. We had no idea of what, if anything, to expect next.
I spent the rest of the day phoning relatives, and keeping them up-to-date as to my husband's progress home. I was glued to CNN. My husband drove home with two other co-workers who live in the area. He arrived at 4:30 p.m. Television service had been knocked out in the city almost immediately, and he had not seen any images of the disaster. I observed him watch the seemingly endless film loop of the planes hitting the Towers, the collapse of the Towers, the reactions of the people in the immediate area, and worst of all, the footage of the people trapped in the buildings jumping from the windows as their last resort. My kind, strong, brave husband sank lower and lower into our couch and cried
soundless tears. I cried with him,not only for the innocent victims, but because I knew I was one of the lucky ones. My loved one returned home safely from the city that day. Grief and joy are an incongruous mix, and it was a mix we sadly became all too familiar with in the following weeks.
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Suzanne | 45 | Connecticut
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#1232 | Tuesday, April 30th 2002
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I was taking a flight lesson in Connecticut. Close to the city. I was in a small plane. From here you can just hardly see the skyline. I had seen several planes on their approach to LaGuardia. I could not see the planes hit the towers, but I think I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was what looked like a small fire somewhere in the skyline. My instructor an I looked at each other, but thought it was just a small fire. About a half hour later the air traffic controllers at my home airport announced something we had never heard. "All aircraft must land immedeately". "There has been a federal emergency declared". I will never forget those words, never.
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David | 14 | Connecticut
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#1230 | Tuesday, April 30th 2002
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I was in Washington, DC. Close to the Pentagon. My brother worked in the WTC. It was very scary.
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Elizabeth | 36 | Connecticut
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#1061 | Monday, March 18th 2002
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Where was I September 11, 2001
Our company was in the process of installing wildlife plants along a creek and near a roadside to become habitat for birds and other forms of wildlife.We have been working with a local golf course to make their facility part of The National Audubon Society's Cooperative Sanctuary Program.
Sincerely,
Paul Sagherian,Jr.
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Paul | 57 | Connecticut
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