Where Were You?

It was a beautiful, sunny late summer morning. I had the ironing board up in the living room, working on ironing a stack of vintage linens for an upcoming antique show I was participating in. As I ironed I was watching the Today show. Suddenly Katie Couric and Matt Lauer  were telling us of a breaking news story, that what appeared to be an airplane had crashed into one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. No one knew what happened. A terrible accident? A plane crash? Air control mix-up? I was still watching just a few short minutes later when an airplane came in view and crashed into the side of the second tower. It quickly became clear something sinister was going on. I called my husband, an electrical inspector who was working in the field, to tell him what had happened. I decided to go on to my 11 A.M. appointment with my hair stylist. All eyes --and ears--were glued to a TV in the salon. I don't remember as clearly when the news broke of the Pentagon being hit or the plane going down in Pennsylvania. I do remember a feeling of disbelief and numbness as the day progressed.

Then came a call from my daughter-in-law. My son was on his way to work, sitting in a traffic jam on the interstate, when he was rear-ended by an uninsured kid going at least 60 MPH, who didn't even brake, knocking my son's SUV into two other cars ahead of him. Fortunately, my son escaped serious injury, but it added a personal stress to what was already a surreal day. We were giving thanks our son was going to be fine, while knowing so many sons and daughters, moms and dads, husbands and wives, would not be returning home that day.

I had the opportunity to visit New York with two of my sisters in the late 1990's, that's one of them in the above photo. She is sitting in one of the observation windows at the top of the World Trade Center. It was a very cloudy day, as you can see, and I thought it was like being in an airplane as you pass through the clouds. Cars on the street below looked like little Matchbox cars and people weren't visible. It is unimaginable to me what it must have been like when that building crumbled.

Today Jonathan and I attended a remembrance service here in our little community. That horrific day is a part of our nation's history and I wanted both of us to be there.

What is your story? Where we you?