It was a beautiful September morning and John and I decided to go out for breakfast. We went to Carl's Jr for biscuits and gravy. Our friend Diane was working that morning and as we were waiting to get our food she came by and said, "Something terrible has happened in New York City. Something about the Twin Towers, but I haven't heard the details yet."
We hurried and ate and rushed home to see what it was on TV. As we pulled into our carport our neighbor, Mary, was walking into her house and was crying. She couldn't even talk, just kept saying, "Terrible, terrible."
We rushed into the house and turned the TV on we saw the last plane fly into the second Twin Tower. It was like a scene from a horror movie, but we knew it was a real thing. A very real horrible thing. We both sat there mesmerized by what we were seeing on TV. Then heard about the plane hitting the Pentagon and one crashing in a field in Pennsylvania, just about twenty minutes shy of hitting the White House. It was madness, and we were practically eye witnesses to the whole thing. The news people were rushing around trying to get the latest news to broadcast to the nation. We just sat there sort of in a trance. Not talking, just staring at the TV screen in disbelief.
It was about 11:30 when I said, "I can't watch anymore, it is just too much to comprehend." I got up and went out into our back yard and sat at the picnic table. Our backyard was pretty well private because we had a hedge of Rose bushes in the back, and a hedge in the front of Lilac bushes. I sat there for several minutes when John came out and we sat together in the silence. We didn't talk. The sky was silent because all air traffic was stopped. There was no traffic sound, no other everyday noises, It was as if the world had stopped making noise. It was so quiet it was eerie.
We finally had to say something and we both agreed that our world would never be the same after what happened today. My daughter Laurie called me and all she said was, "Mom, I love you."
It reminded me of the morning of the Oklahoma City bombing. I heard about that on talk radio on my way to work early that morning. I remember the announcer saying, "We all need to tell our loved ones we love them." At the time I thought this was the worst thing that could happen in our country, but 9/11/2001 proved that wrong.
And now fifteen years later, it has been proven that on that day our country changed forever. We can never go back to the seemingly carefree world I remember as a young girl and even as a young woman. I feel sad that my grandchildren and great grandchildren will never know that "other" world.
Today, I have much to be grateful for, but I have to remember the horror of that day that changed my world so much. Our nation has been blessed by God, but I fear what will happen if he stops, and pray that never happens.
Until later, Patj
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