Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

Where Were You Ten Years Ago on This Day?

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Ten years ago…

I was flying home from Paris after a buying trip with a client from Boston. My client was flying home… as he went to go on the plane, he saw a TV monitor showing the Twin Towers being hit. Needless to say, his flight did not take off.

As I returned home, flying home before my client left, I felt like something bad had happened, though I did not know about the Towers at the time. When I arrived home, I went online; I saw nothing unusual to support the odd feeling I was having. I walked to the school to pick up my son; when I arrived at the school, school parents came up to me, hugging me, saying, "I am so sorry for your country!" When I heard them tell me the news, I couldn't believe it, yet then I understood the odd feeling I had had at 2:45 that afternoon.

After that, everything seemed surreal…. what was happening to our world…

 

 

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Where were you ten years ago on this day?

 

 

 

Rendez vous secret

The random winner of the hotel reciept is:

Lorelei.

I counted 11 comments up from the first comment.

Comments

53 responses to “Where Were You Ten Years Ago on This Day?”

  1. Jennie@clusternavigators.com

    10 years ago today I was in NZ and awoke to a phone call from my sister telling me what was unfolding.
    My husband, who just broke his arm a couple of days before you did, was in Portland, Oregon at that time and I was mortified that he was about to get on a plane and thankful that he was, like most people that day, unable to fly anywhere…he was stuck in Portland, which is not a bad thing as it is a lovely city, and away from the carnage that happened elsewhere.
    My husband eventually kept on with his travel but things were just not the same after that. Today in NZ we are in the midst of the Rugby World Cup and the American team had a special church service in the city they are staying in, with many local people sharing their grief.
    I am glad you are sounding more perky and so this must mean your arm is healing day by day. My husband has bruising for miles and is still feeling the pain but he is healing well…something to be even more thankful for.
    Take care
    Jennifer
    Nelson, New Zealand

    Reply
  2. Denise Griffiths

    Ten years ago we were living like Gypsies travelling Australia with no outside communication apart from the car radio. When I first heard, I thought it’s a prank, like the Orson Welles war of the worlds thingy, only after some time I fully realised that this was for real. Then the full enormity hit, the world would never be the same.
    Take care and may your wrist make a full recovery.
    Denise
    Tasmania Aus.

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  3. M

    Brilliant blue skies as I looked out the kitchen window. I was in the middle of putting my groceries – that I had run out to frantically purchase after the second place hit the Twin Towers – away, around 11AM, and that particular moment when I looked up at the sky is forever etched in my mind: It was then that I realized this could be the very moment I’d die. All I wanted was having my family with me. My husband was on his way home, hopefully. It had taken some convincing to have him live his office a block from the White House. He was one of the last who got his car out of the garage, before outbound traffic literally blocked the exit (friends of ours had to walk home, sometimes given a ride by strangers who on that particular day behaved like brothers and sisters). The kids were locked down in school, they would not allow them to run home even though we lived only two minutes from the school. At some point I convinced the principal to let them leave. I remember sitting in front of the TV, watching the horror rebroadcast, Peter Jennings voice, his calm words the only presence in those hours that felt like balsam for our souls – he is for me an unforgettable hero of those hours. The president hopping around the country made me feel mad, as we in the capital and the area around had no way to escape as one of those airplanes still in the air and unaccounted for made its way towards DC. If they would hit the Pentagon, imagine what would come next. Watching what was unfolding in New York City, the horror of it all gripped our hearts. What was in store for us all?

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  4. M

    I apologize for the mistakes.

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  5. Julie Ann

    At the office where I met Keith. Our first public hug followed the second tower being hit, Jx

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  6. le petit cabinet de curiosites

    I was at the shop with a client, my parents were on the road coming back from Maisons et objets . My grand mother called me : telling me there was a war and bla bla , I first thought she was becoming crazy , I say “Mamie , that’s ok, I will come tonight to see you ” but she insisted and she said to turn on the radio , with my client we heard the story , it was so unreal . I remember thinking it was a new international war and may be I will not see my parents again …
    Since this terrible day, the world has changed
    Mélanie , Aubagne, France

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  7. Susan

    Hello, I was living in a suburb of Chicago at the time, and was watching The Today Show and enjoying a cup of coffee when I saw the news as it unfolded. Like so many others, I watched hours of television coverage, as the reality of what had happened slowly sank in.
    My husband, who often travels for work, was home that week and for that I was so grateful. I think I reacted the most emotionally to the stories about Flt. 93, that went down in Pennsylvania, as there were communications between families and victims.
    10 years later I am living in Zurich, and part of me is a bit sad to not be remembering these awful moments on U.s. soil. I can’t say exactly why, it’s just a feeling.

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  8. katiebell

    I had just dropped my son off at school, he was in grade one at the local Steiner school, with the most gorgeous teacher.
    A very protective and special place, filled with the energy of fairies, light and love… I got in the car and heard the story on the radio… I banished the feelings of dread and negativity, with compassion and love… then drove to the park by the river nearby and took a long walk.
    I walked on the narrow ledge path over the spring river, and birds swooped and called to eachother, the sun shone on and I felt safe and that all was OK in the larger world. I let the peaceful power in that world of nature fill me, instead of the fear, and this sense of peace has carried me forward. I have always gotten the most overwhelming dreads but now I try not to feed the fear and terror, as that feeds the creation of a world of fear I do not want to make. Does that make sense?
    I was in Australia, so it was a spring morning and I must say I felt for the American people going into a cold winter.
    A friend studying Peace Studies gave me a quote something like “We live in an ocean of peace, with islands of conflict” which is true. This helped me focus on the peace and feel it, acknowledge it and not focus on the conflict that is so dangerously seductive and leads to more fear and destruction.
    I find it hard to do this sometimes, and we all feel overwhelmed at times, but it is a good principle to live. Perhaps this can replace the culture of negative focus, fear-mongering and sensationalizing by media and powers that be, which only brings us all more grief, hatred and war.
    So Peace, Shalom, Salaam to all.

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  9. Paulita

    Ten years ago today, we were in Mackinac Island, Michigan on vacation. We began an 8-mile bike ride around the island just after the first plane hit. When we returned from that bike ride, the world had changed.
    Here’s My 9/11 post

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  10. Deb

    My office is a few blocks from the World Trade Center. I was preparing to leave for work by car, watching the traffic report on the news at home in New Jersey, watching in shock and disbelief as the events unfolded, as it became painfully clear that we were under attack, that lives were being lost, that our innocence as a nation was lost forever. In the following days, the streets of lower Manhattan were populated mostly by brave responders coming from Ground Zero in gas masks, totally covered in soot. Pictures of missing loved ones were posted everywhere. Fire stations became shrines to fallen fire fighters. Sadness hung over the city in a cloud of grief. In the aftermath, I can still remember the toxic, acrid smell, for so so so many months. But mostly I remember the sounds of silence, it was deafening. The sky was absolutely still, except for military aircraft-frightening yet at the same time comforting… such an eerie silence. Our beautiful and vibrant City was brought to her knees, only the sounds of police and ambulance sirens and church bells were heard, that was all we needed to get through it…that and the leadership of our city and country and the bravery of all those who risked their lives in the recovery efforts. The City was filled with so much love that it was palpable. We will NEVER forget. It always brings tears to my eyes…God Bless America

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  11. Bev

    10 years ago, I was at home, dealing with a car that wouldn’t start, kids who needed to get to school, my husband’s day in the office. My folks called from Seattle and my dad told me to turn on the television. I turned it on and was shocked. And then, the Pentagon (we live 20 miles from the Pentagon) and I wondered how many I knew were working there that day. After that I went down the street and found a neighbor and we started to pray together. We prayed that people would be able to find ways out of the Towers, the Pentagon. We prayed and prayed.
    10 years later: last night my congregation was invited to the mosque which is next door to our church and they also invited the local Jewish synagogue. I spoke as a Presbyterian pastor, the Jewish rabbi spoke and the Imam spoke as well. The local police chief was there as well as many first responders. It was very, very powerful to have these three communities of faith together remembering the events. Afterwards we all ate a wonderful meal together. The highlight was sitting with the Imam and his wife, my husband and I and the rabbi talking about our membership and who showed up only at Christmas/Easter/High Holy Days/Passover/Ramadan/Eid!
    O.k. now I’m late to church….

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  12. Paula

    I was driving to Edinburgh airport with my daughter to pick up a school friend of hers from Toronto. We thought we heard something on the radio about a plane crash, we both went cold. After tuning into other radio stations we kept hearing snippets about what was happening. Our first thoughts were a war has started. Sadly a little later (we were turned back from entering the airport), we leared the terrible truth. God bless all those who lost their lives.

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  13. jeni

    I will never forget, the details etched in my heart forever. My husband had a job going in Washington D.C. and the kids then(12,10,7), and I decided to make it into a Vacation.
    On the day before we had been doing all the D.C. sites but ran out of time to go by the Pentagon. We called it a day and decided to go the next day.The morning of 9/11 we awoke a little tired after being on the go for days, and short of clean clothes, we took a vote to put off our Pentagon visit, and go find a local laundry. The TV was on in the corner of the laundromat and the kids were reading, waiting. I looked up a little startled to see a crowd had gathered around the tv high on the wall, and even a few people crying. Some one turned up the sound and we were all in shock as to what we were witness too, I worried for the kids as they watched in horror. Soon the event changed and news broke that the Pentagon was hit. We stood outside feeling helpless as the fighter jets roared overhead. My thought turned to Rob, who was on the other side of town. The news said there was a lockdown on the city. How would Rob get to us. People were all quiet everywhere in a state of shock, some had loved ones that worked at the Pentagon. I will try to finish my story quickly, Rob made it back to us,
    and said we needed to leave immediately before we wer stuck in the city. On the way back to AR., we stopped at Williamsburg to visit, although vacation was no longer on our minds. The US was in a state of shock every gas station, cafe, it was as though time was standing still and sad. Historic Williamsburg had gone into Patriotic mode, and we witnessed the most beautiful ceremonies, prayers and singing honoring the thousands of brave people whose lives were changed forever on 9/11. It was a very spiritual end to our road trip to D.C.

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  14. Candace

    I was working that day in our antique store in a small Texas town. When the store next to ours was not open, I called the owner to see why no one showed up. She told me what happened. Very few shoppers came out that day and they were all in a daze, just needing a break from the TV. I did not see what happened until that evening.

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  15. Marie-Noëlle

    Hi Bev !!!
    I read your “story” with great interest, especially the last bit : your commemorating night yesterday.
    It must have been very powerful, indeed… and very moving too … VERY powerful and VERY moving !
    Thank you for sharing !!!

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  16. kim

    Ah – I just wrote about this on my blog…
    I lived in NYC — was home that day… tried to help out in whatever way I could.

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  17. Ann

    It is so painful to reminisce about that day. I was getting ready for work and DH said “something is going on, I can’t get any news on the internet.” I said turn on the TV and there it all unfolded before our eyes. I was standing, watching, and when the second tower fell, my knees gave out and I had to sit. Tears running down my face not knowing the extent of further attacks.
    Later and since it was my sister’s birthday, I thought this won’t be a very happy birthday so I ordered a dozen yellow roses to be sent to her. The clerk and I were both in tears as I placed my order. When sis got her flowers they had sent her 2 dozen yellow roses.
    As Americans, it is hard for us to understand that kind of hate. Since that day I haven’t stopped praying for peace in our world.

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  18. Rhonda P.

    Living in Phoenix, it was my bedroom television that came on at 6:30am to reflect that horrible news. I could not comprehend the image of the towers on fire. Had a private plane lost it’s way, I asked myself.
    The sky was so silent in the days to come as I sat at our pool looking up and praying for everyone to be safe.
    You were right to think, what is happening to our world?

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  19. CM Carroll

    Tomorrow will mark the beginning of my 27th year as a teacher. Of course, it will also mark the anniversary of the end of the world as we knew it. Ten years ago, I stepped off a LIRR train and went to the KMART in Penn Station to buy school supplies for my new class. The loot was too heavy to carry onto the subway, so I hailed a cab and headed north while two planes headed for the towers. A few moments after I arrived at school, while unpacking my purchases, a co-worker ran into my classroom and asked me to turn on my television. This was not possible. It had no antennae and my tv was only occasionally used to view videos. My colleague was already sure terrorists were responsible for the news he had heard on the way to work that morning… that one plane had crashed into the WTC. I turned on the radio, but as students arrived, I had to turn that off.
    There was a meeting scheduled for the faculty that morning. I remember NOTHING of that. As we left to go back to our rooms, where soon students would return from breakfast , we passed the model apartment, which was packed with people standing around a television that apparently had cable. Within minutes of arriving there, the first tower fell. A long time close friend spontaneously turned around to me and crying, we embraced. I remember asking the stupidest question of my life into her ear: “Did they get everyone out?” The mind simply cannot process such horror. You hope beyond hope. Our time was up, tho, in more ways than one. We all had to get back to our classes.
    In an effort to keep everyone calm, we were essentially in a news black-out for hours at a time, unlike the rest of the world. I do remember turning the radio on again when students left for lunch and hearing about the Pentagon and the crash in PA. I distinctly remember turning it off when the students were about to return, and as I did, I thought that I would not be able to get home that evening because I was so certain that bridges around Manhattan would be the next targets and by the time the kids got on the buses, they would be gone.
    Inexplicably, they weren’t, although they were closed. At around 3 am the next day, my husband was able to get over one to come get me. Traversing the bridge home, I looked towards the empty skyline that my eyes have lingered on for nearly a decade now. Absence had become something you can see.
    That early morning, the only thing visible was the huge plume of smoke. For weeks, whenever I was on a subway platform (outdoors in the Bronx), you could taste and smell it. Sometimes, even halfway out to Montauk, you could smell it as well. Walking through Penn Station every morning for months, you could see the families heading toward the Port Authority help offices and the growing Wall of the Missing. Also everyday, both to & from work, there were the firemen and recovery workers passed out from exhaustion on the floor waiting for their trains home. I remember walking through one morning that first week and seeing all the police and firemen… looking down at the floor, I recall the lazy observation that their shoes were covered in ash and then the split second horrifying realization and distinct thought “they never will find anyone—they are there, on their shoes!”
    Every morning for months it was the same… passing the office of the family help center and the still growing wall… now a depository for recollection and totem. On the 2 train towards work, if I was not reading the biographies in the Times, someone was. Everyday I wept uncontrollably during that ride. The overwhelming sorrow was so palpable and so much.
    I knew people who walked home covered in that ash. I met survivors. I met mourners. I cannot look at the skyline from my daily bridge traverse without seeing what is forever gone. And forgetting has never been an option.

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  20. Rhonda P.

    Blessings to you Bev and thank you so much for sharing your story. I’m moved beyond words.

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  21. Kathie B

    Just now listening to Eleanor Beardsley’s report on National Public Radio about the 9/11 memorial being held in Paris, reportedly the largest today outside the US.

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  22. Kathie B

    I apologize in advance for this being so long. But you asked, Corey…
    I’d just begun my second year of Portuguese classes at the University of Pittsburgh, so was at home on 9/11 planning to study for the first exam of the semester, the next afternoon. I’d listened to the 8 AM news headlines on National Public Radio, then after Farmboy Husband got up, I turned off the clock radio and rolled over to catch a few more winks before getting up and spending the day reviewing the first chapter of our textbook plus my prolific notes from the first two weeks of classes.
    Instead, I overslept (some things never change!), so by the time I awoke and tried to focus my bleary eyes on the orange LED digits showing the time, it was just past 9:45 AM. I flipped the clock radio back on, expecting to listen to the station’s midday jazz format while I got up, but instead I heard the resonant baritone of long-time NPR “Morning Edition” host Bob Edwards still on-air, even though that program normally ends at 9 AM.
    What Edwards was saying made no sense whatsoever to a half-awake person lacking all context, so my natural reaction was to wonder if I’d misread an 8 as a 9 and maybe it was really only about 8:45 AM and “Morning Edition” was still on. After a minute or two I heard Edwards talk about watching the images they were watching on the TV in the announce booth (really weird for radio, huh?), so I figured I’d better turn on the small TV we watched in bed — the Pentagon had just been struck, and it was just minutes later that the first of the World Trade Center towers collapsed.
    I got up, got dressed, fixed a cup of tea and turned on our main TV in order to watch the continuing coverage with Dan Rather on CBS. It was maybe 10:45 AM (I can’t really recall any more) when the local affiliate, KDKA-TV, cut in on the network. My immediate reaction was profound annoyance because, I reasoned, nothing could possibly be more important then than the network feed; I feared this was going to be just some man-on-the-street blather reacting to the attacks at the WTC and Pentagon.
    Instead, it was KDKA’s morning news anchors reporting that a plane of unknown size had apparently crashed in a field between Shanksville (which I’d never heard of) and Stoystown, little more than an hour’s drive from where we live. As the day unfolded, they reported about cell-phone calls from Flight 93 passengers fielded by Greensburg’s 911 operators as the plane had passed over Westmoreland County, relating the horror on board. And that the flight path had come within 10 miles (only 1-2 minutes’ flying time) of Pittsburgh International Airport.
    I phoned Farmboy Husband at the University, to relate the morning’s news (some of which he’d already learned), and to urge him to come home. All I could think of — and the greatest fear of many then — was that there were still more hijacked planes in the air; we Pittsburghers wondered why our region had seemingly been targeted. In ensuing days we learned that SW Pennsylvania was not a target — despite our 66-story US Steel Building (later USX Tower) being the tallest building between New York City and Chicago, and the University’s own Cathedral of Learning 36-story skyscraper being so conspicuous. Instead, it was mere happenstance that Flight 93 had been diverted over our area and crashed headlong into a field due in reaction to a courageous attempted passenger revolt — and that most likely that plane had been headed for the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. (not the White House, which would be difficult to spot from the air).
    The other things I remember was how eerily silent it was the rest of that day and the next due to all non-military flights being grounded. And, in what felt almost like a mockery of everyone’s sorrow, how perfectly beautiful the weather was those days– sunny, mild, not humid.

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  23. Marilyn

    We all remember where we were when 9/11 happened, as some of us remember the assassination of JFK and Martin Luther King. I had just gotten up and as I sometimes would do I turned the television on to check the weather for the day. I was astounded to see that the first tower had been struck and we all thought it was an accident, until as I was sitting glued to the tv we saw the second tower be struck and life began to crumble. We are not the same innocent country we once were and for that I am sad. May we heal and be at peace.

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  24. Marilyn

    We all remember where we were when 9/11 happened, as some of us remember the assassination of JFK and Martin Luther King. I had just gotten up and as I sometimes would do I turned the television on to check the weather for the day. I was astounded to see that the first tower had been struck and we all thought it was an accident, until as I was sitting glued to the tv we saw the second tower be struck and life began to crumble. We are not the same innocent country we once were and for that I am sad. May we heal and be at peace.

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  25. Marilyn

    Sorry this posted twice. Can’t figure out how to delete this second one.

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  26. Terri

    I was home cleaning my house. My little girl was watching Dora the Explorer. The phone rang. It was my husband. He was on a business trip to Indiana and was supposed to fly home that night. He told me to turn on the news.
    I spent most of the rest of the day watching those towers go down again and again…..It was like something out of a movie. Unreal. Impossible. So horrible it could not possibly be real.

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  27. Annette

    I have turned off my TV this weekend. Living through it once was enough!

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  28. Mahala

    I was watching tv and it was interrupted with footage of all that was happening. I phoned a friend who worked at the border and she said we were put on red alert and then the school was locked down…we lived 8 blocks from the Washington / Canadian border.

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  29. Kiki

    I sat in my car on the parking lot of my working place in South West England, ready to drive off for an errand for the school I worked for —- I heard the choked voice of the BBC speaker, understood nothing, yet understood everything…. ran back into the office, called my husband and urged him to look up the internet at work (we only had dial up at that time) and turned on the radio, called my boss and we listened to the voice of BBC telling us that the world had stopped.
    A moment we will all never forget. – We didn’t have TV and still haven’t got TV in our home but we didn’t need to see any of this; it was terrible enough what we heard….
    Many special prayer and countless thoughts went to the poor souls who lost their life so suddenly and unprepared – today we did a special service and special prayers to commemmorate those losses – and we thought of those who are being pushed over the border into eternity every hour of every day – most also not because they want to die but because they are made to.
    We haven’t lost any personal friends but we have friends who lost their friends… we are just so thankful that we are permitted to live through every single day without harm.

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  30. Shelly

    Ten years ago today I woke up, heading to the shower when my dad who was watching news, said an airplane had crashed into one of the towers. I said, “I thought that airspace was closed to airplanes”, he said “Me too”. I took my shower and came back out and he said another plane crashed into the other tower. I remember thinking that there was something else going on here. I went on to work in some sort of a daze. I kept turning on the t.v. just to see what was going on. Later that evening I continued to watch news coverage of the whole thing. In the ensuing days when airplanes were allowed to resume flight, I kept an eye on the sky whenever I heard an airplane. To this day, I cannot watch the towers collapsing. God Bless America!!

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  31. Kiki

    a haunting and deeply touching recall – too horrible for words and yet you described it in such a way that I could hardly finish reading, I cried so much!

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  32. Gail Gallagher

    I was in my office on Park Ave. & 47th street in midtown. We saw the headline that a plane had hit the WTC flash across the bottom of our Bloomberg screens and reacted with disbelief. Then my eyes went to the face of our head trader, Bob Jackman. His 23 year old daughter, Brooke, worked at Cantor Fitzgerald on a very high floor. When Bob got hold of her on the phone she said that they we’re going to try for the roof because the stairs were blocked & full of flames and smoke. Being with Bob that day as he watched the live video footage dreading the worst and hoping for the best was one of most heart rending things I’ve ever witnessed. We spent September 12th calling hospitals hoping that she would be found there. Paper flyers were placed on walls around the city hoping that someone had seen her… She was one of many gone without a trace. Just a a young girl at her first job.
    Read about Brooke and the foundation that her family founded to continue her work at www.brookejackmanfoundation.org

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  33. Jeanne

    I live in California and was awakened by a call from my daughter in New York City. Her first words were, “I’m ok Mom.” I thought it was lovely that she called justbto tell me that although there was a catch in her voice that was unusual and then she told me to turn on the tv. I did just in time to see a plane crash into the second tower. My teenage son and I stood transfixed as the news and pictures were repeated over and over. We did finally get ready for work and school, but it was so somber. When my supervisor arrived late at work she couldn’t understand the silence. It was her birthday and she was expecting a celebration. Her birthdays have never been the same since then. That day also started me on a habit that I still have. Almost every morning the first thing I do is turn on the tv news. I don’t know what I expect, but I guess I want to know what’s happening in the world while I
    was asleep.

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  34. Amy Kortuem

    I was at work. Writing about a ring bearer pillow with a cowboy hat design on it. My world was rocked in so many ways – and I made big changes. It’s all on my blog today:
    http://amykortuem.blogspot.com/
    Sending peaceful thoughts to you and out into the world…

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  35. Star

    I was on my way to work when the first tower was hit and arrived just minutes later to listen to it unfold on the radio and watch video streaming on my computer. So unreal at the time; still devastating.

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  36. JudyO

    It was an absolutely beautiful briliant blue sky day. It was the beginning of the school year and I was in my classroom with my kindergartners. A parent came to bring his child her snack she had forgotten at home.
    He commented “isn’t it terrible…?’ I had no idea. Minutes later my classroom phone rang and my son asked if I had heard from our daughter. She worked on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC or his father who worked in Boston but often took the shuttle to NYC.
    My family was all safe but I will never forget that day. Our lives and our country will never be the same as before 9/11.

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  37. Kathie B

    “I am so sorry for your country!”
    Corey, I received an outpouring of such comments on my first trip to the Azores in May-June 2002, from both the natives and the foreign tourists I met there. I remember vividly a young woman engineer from Germany, who recounted how, as word of the attacks spread throughout her workplace, she and her co-workers had gathered around a TV set there that afternoon, and wept when they saw the WTC towers fall.

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  38. Stephanie M

    I enjoyed reading your reflections. Very insightful….

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  39. Rabenfrau

    Nearly everyone knows, what he or she had done in these hours. Though not concerned personally (not having lost someone beloved), it seems we all have lost something nevertheless: the feeling of securety, of “all this is far away”…
    Ursel

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  40. momof5

    On September 11th 2000 my friends 10month old son passed away. One year later I was delivering a sunflower to their home in memory of the loss of this bright and sunny little baby. As I returned to my car I heard the news on the radio. I returned to my office and saw the second tower fall on TV. I remember my shock at hearing that almost 400 firefighters were lost or missing. I just could not wrap my head around those numbers. In October when we visited my daughter in her first year of college I remember attending a Cleveland Indians game with our family. A small plane flew over the stadium and everyone panicked as at that time air space over all public spaces was prohibited. Shortly after that I was bike riding with my 9 year old son when we saw a plane very near the prudential center in Boston. In a frightened voice he asked me if the plane was going to hit the building. I remember we got off our bikes to watch only then realizing that it was the angle of our view that made it look like this might be possible. I remember the fear and the feeling that our world would never be the same again. Ten years later that fear has dissipated somewhat. Every year on Sept. 11th I mourn a 10month old infant I will always remember as well as thousands I will never know.

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  41. katiebell

    sending love

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  42. CM Carroll

    Thank You for your comment. I find fault in my recollection because it offers no solution and is so about ME when (really) I am NOBODY in the epic and tragic tale… but I cannot really reach any further than my own experience of the day and the days, weeks and months that followed… maybe someday.
    In the days that followed, some big corporation took out an ad in the New York Times with the following quote:
    When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it–always. — Mahatma Gandhi
    It brought me consolation at the time, and has never failed to since… it seems I made you weep, so I figured I owed you my best sauve! I will also suggest the old hymn “Balm in Gilead” Together the words of both work wonders…. Beyond those, may we all pray for peace!

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  43. Jane Ann Abraham

    Thank you for sharing. I can’t imagine actually living through that horror. Your account really brought to life the day to day ordeal. What agony for everyone. We were often in prayer for everyone. I live in the Pacific NW and still can not bear to watch any portrayal of that day.

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  44. Karen C

    Getting ready for bed in our safe, warm home in Australia.
    Just thought we would catch the late news.
    NOT POSSIBLE!
    As soon as the towers were hit I knew they would implode. I just knew it.
    My boss’ daughter was working in New York and all I could think of was whether or not I should call him to let him know she was in danger, or hope someone close to the family would alert him?
    Thankfully she was safe, but so many of her friends and colleagues were lost.
    My niece’s husband was about to board a plane home to Australia but was grounded for 3 days. He had an opportunity to completely re-think his life and work and when he came home he made some radical life changes.
    I processed the information overnight to fit the world I knew but one thought I kept having was
    “How angry must those people feel to plan and carry out something so sinister?”
    The most frightening moment was when my 15 year old son came into our bedroom the next morning and his first shaky words were
    “America has been attacked.”
    He said the words I had processed away and I then realized his world and my world would be forever different.

    Reply
  45. Marie-Noëlle

    All I can remember from then is that report on all TV channels with nightmarish images which the whole world discovered in awe and which were coming repetitively…
    Where was I? What was I up to? … no clue !!!
    My only memory is that I got glued to the TV set, first not believing my eyes, and then devastated by the scene.
    Alike many French people, Iwill never forget !!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HQgTJ3h-3A
    Thinking of you and of the US

    Reply
  46. Elizabeth

    I was at work (insurance) in the WTC in Rotterdam on that day. The lobby and entrancehall was filled with people from all over the world wachting the drama unfold. We had al lot of contact with people from the Dutch AON. Aon was one of the company’s on the higher levels of the South Tower (above impact). Talking to people from the Dutch Aon was very emotional that day.
    I also remember the fear and feeling some type of connection from being in a WTC myself and surrounded by a lot of American’s. I am still in shock when I see it on tv. My heart goes out to everyone affected by this.

    Reply
  47. Robin

    I was on the phone speaking with Edward Saiya. His office was located on the 110 floor of Tower 2. He called me a few times a week to report on the little bugs that he found in the coffee pot – how did they get up that high? That morning, he called to tell me he was evacuating the building but had just been told to return to his office.
    I told him to leave the building. We didn’t know what was going on so he should continue to head down the stairs. He was in the middle of describing his descent (he just arrived at the 86th floor, who was with him, what a pain in the neck it was, etc. Then silence.
    The rest of the day was as you can imagine it – shock, tears and absolute sorrow at our loss. My experience with Ed has taught me to treat every person as if it is the last time you will see them, work with them, hear their voice. Sometimes, it is.

    Reply
  48. Pat Kahn

    When the twin towers were hit, my husband and I were on board a plane about 20 minutes out of Paris. We weren’t told what had happened but the demeanor of the stewardess with whom I’d been chatting visibly changed. I remember wondering if I had said something to offend her. It would not have been the first time, nor would it be the last when my French vocabulary failed me.
    We landed in Paris and were unaware of what had happened until we dropped in at Shakespeare and Company on the Left Bank. The flood of support from the French was overwhelming. Signs in shop windows that read “Americans we share your loss. If you need to use a telephone, feel free to use ours.”
    I remember a shop keeper who, when he recognized my American accent, threw his arms around me and whispered “Courage!”
    Such generosity from a people who had known far worse. A terrible and immensely sad time.

    Reply
  49. Sara

    I was getting ready to go to work, teaching first grade. I turned on the Today Show just in time to see the second plane hit. I went and woke up my husband, telling him, “I think you’d better see this.” Then, I had to go to work and try to explain “why” to my inquisitive first graders. I’ll never forget it.

    Reply
  50. Cass at That Old House

    No, you are not “Nobody” in this story — Instead, you are “Everybody.” We each have a story to tell, and each is important. The criminals who did this attacked more than the 2977 people who perished; they struck at the core of our country.
    What the USA and the world lost that day is immeasurable. My life, your life — they are not the same as they were. I still turn the news on in the morning, but I pray that it will be routine politics or economy stories. This weekend at various times, my husband and I crossed the Triboro, the GW and the Throg’s Neck bridges. I admit — I held my breath.
    I will never get over the horror and fear of realizing, when the second plane hit, that it was war. And, worse, when the buildings went down — the unbearable pain of knowing there were people still in them.
    I live in New Jersey, where we could see the black roiling smoke and we smelled it for weeks; 4 school mates of our daughters lost their dads. I will never get over it and as far as forgetting? Impossible.
    Thanks for a heartfelt post. You are indeed Somebody.
    Cass

    Reply
  51. Victoria Ramos

    I was on my way to work. I work for the state legislature, so they closed the capitol because no one really knew exactly what was going on. The images of the plane hitting the first tower will be etched on my mind forever. I went home, changed, and drove to my daughter’s elementary school to volunteer and hang out. Surprisingly they were many more parents who’s thoughts were the same. The children.
    The newly unveiled memorial where the Twin towers once stood is hauntingly beautiful. 10 years have passed. The void is still there – represented by the memorial and it is ever present. I WILL NEVER FORGET.

    Reply
  52. CM Carroll

    Of course, I called myself ‘nobody’ in light of the pain and loss experienced by family & friends of the victims.I cross the Throgs Neck in my daily commute and understand your feelings about that and everything else!
    Thank You, Corey, for giving us all a place to tell our stories….

    Reply
  53. bramble

    Standing in a field at an open air flea market (brocante) and there were people beginning to talk about what was happening. Frantically trying to find my cell phone to call my husband. He was supposed to go into NYC for an interview that day at a company in the towers. I didn’t know that it had been rescheduled and he was at work here.Finally got him and sat down right where I was standing and cried tears of joy to hear his voice. And prayed for everyone.

    Reply

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