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#62 | Tuesday, September 18th, 2001
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i was awake. wide awake. fresh from a nightmare that was frighteningly simular to what i witnessed on tv moments later. i attached myself to the tv, hoping and praying i was still in my nightmare. praying again, that maybe bruce willis or some other hollywood box office hero would swing across the screen, screaming "yippie kai yay muthah f*ckah" or something equivalent. sadly, i was awake now. and the terror of nightmares had meshed into reality. and i cried. because the glass between hollywood and reality had just shattered. because i live in a world where people are capable of such unspeakable acts. because i was thankful, right then and there, that i was alive. because things like these should only be lived in nightmares.
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april | 18 | North Carolina
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#63 | Tuesday, September 18th, 2001
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I was asleep. I woke up around 11 a.m. Hawaii Time (I live at Pearl Harbor), which by then was 5 p.m. EST. I checked my cell phone for any messages from my husband, who was supposed to call me that morning about errands we were due to run later that day.
He had left the following message on my phone at about 9 a.m. local time, which made no sense to me the first time I listened to it:
"Hi honey, it's me. Hopefully by the time you get this message you'll have seen the news. Everything is okay here. I think it would be best if you got in the car and drove down to Ala Moana [mall] -- get away from the airport and the base. I should be home at the usual time, but things are really busy here right now. I love you."
Confused and already scared out of my mind, I darted upstairs and turned my computer on. I went straight to CNN.com.
I never want to feel again the way I felt when I saw that front page. I don't even remember the exact headline anymore, but by the time I logged on the whole world knew it was a massive terrorist attack, and nobody knew if there were more coming. That was essentially what the headline conveyed.
Cliche as it sounds, I really felt like I was in a nightmare. Like I had been bound up in a layer of tangled gauze from which there was no escape. Nothing would come into focus. What the hell was going on? Was this it, the end of the world? Were nuclears bombs about to start raining down?
I sat in front of my computer for a good two or three minutes, too stunned to do anything. Then some sort of survival instinct took over and I ran to the bedroom, stumbled out of my pajamas and pulled on some clean clothes. I wasn't quite ready to follow my husband's advice and flee the house, but I wanted to be ready if I needed to be ready. I still feel like I'm stuck in that moment.
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jess | 26 | Hawaii
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#64 | Tuesday, September 18th, 2001
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I was across the river, on the 11th floor of a building overlooking the WTC. More at http://www.tnl.net/newsletter/2001/wtcbombing.asp
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Tristan | 30 | New York
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#65 | Tuesday, September 18th, 2001
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I was on my way back from London, UK after visiting a client, running late for picking up my daughter from the childminder.
The middle eastern looking cab driver was hysterical, I had no idea what had happened, it must have only just been announced on the radio. I told him he should go home.
I get to my childminder's house, her husband has called her, she is watching the news. The towers had just fallen. I spent the rest of the day finding out that my family in the USA were ok and then passing the news onto relatives as it was hard to get through by phone. Britain has been very much affected by this tragedy.
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Rachel | 26 | United Kingdom
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#66 | Tuesday, September 18th, 2001
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I was on vacation in a remote part of Maine with my husband, baby and dog.
We live in Pennsylvania but we have an apartment in NYC because my husband works there.
He sometimes takes the Path train that goes under the WTC. He also takes the Newark flight to San Francisco about once a month.
I'm glad I planned our vacation as I did.
I think of the victims everyday. I ache for their families.
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KC | 38 | Pennsylvania
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