6 years ago I was doing my normal thing. Getting up, combing my hair and heading to run my errands. I would take my ferret Casper to the vet and find out his fate was sealed in the very near future. But also that very same day the sights in my home town were like something I have never seen before. When I came out from the vets office in tears myself I notice how hectic things became while I was inside with Casper. You see, at that time I lived among several Military Bases in North Carolina. It was nothing to see different branches of the Military out running, doing errands or driving their transport vehicles from North Carolina to Virginia. I was all about 2 hours south or so from the Pentagon.
I could not get over all the buzz around town. Military Personnel everywhere, even convoys of transportation beginning to group together. The relaxed training look that I was familiar with had disappeared. On a few faces screamed of rage, anger and even some I can still see today as scared. Images I will forever take with me because that was the last time I would see these unknown faces. I do not know if they are alive even today.
Gas stations were lined up to the hills, people huddled around talking. I just did not know what was going on. I called my husband on the cell phone and told him what I was seeing. I truly did not know, that is till he asked me if I had the radio on. No, I did not. I came out of the vets office upset and the radio was the last thing I wanted to deal with. I turned it on and was horrified at what I was hearing. I knew then and there when they were speculating what happened to the towers that it was serious because just in those moments since the planes hit the placeI live in was all a buzz!
It hit our area hard. We were actually told to stay off roads and places were closed by lunch time. They did road blocks and cops with sirens went up and down the road reminding us to stay in. It was not that we were in close danger but right in our town ran the main interstate that connected all the bases directly to the Pentagon. They did not want to hinder what was going to take place. It was a site to see all the Military getting things together before the towers even fell. My heart knew it was going to be bad, very bad.
I turned on my tv and sat like most of the world in tears and disbelief. I remember it all so clearly, all of the images and everything I have scrapbooked for my children, the news - everything is part of me today. I will never ever forget feeling limp and sitting down on my couch just as the tower fell. In an instant the trapped and the living took their last breath. My soul felt heavy - I knew.
I hurt for people I knew who were going to war, I hurt for their families in our area. I cried for the widows and the children who were left to rise in a world where what had fallen had taken a parent -or two. Sisters, brothers, moms, aunts, dads, uncles, cousins all became an instant family even though all I knew was the image of their poster being shown and saying 'Missing'.
6 years later the images have faded and argument has taken place on the real reason it happened. While it does matter, we can not disrespect those who had fallen. No matter if they were heros who died saving lives or a stock broker on floor 97, even the window washer who perished helping others.....it does not matter, they all deserve our respect. Their families deserve it.
I, like you, was able to wake this morning and hopefully will do so all week long as the reminders flood our homes of what seemed like yesterday but is infact ..History now. Those images, the faces and people are burned into history forever. I got out my albums today. I have every soul documented who perished. I have books, magazines, my own albums in my home. I want my children to know History can make you stronger even in disbelief and sorrow.
As most of us still are trying to comprehend how thousands of people died in a single cloud of smoke the reality is some have forgotten what happened that day. Do not become to wrapped up in the politics this week. I know there are many theories floating around right now. If, for just one day - September 11th, remember what started out as a beautiful sunny morning quickly ended in a black dust that kept those lovely people from going home that very same beautiful night. The sun was still bright, the clouds were brilliant. The tears wept and the things you and I take for granted now were taken away in just a moments time.
I sit with my husband and my family at night. No one knows what tomorrow will bring. Say I love you, hug your family and friends tight, dismiss any ill thoughts - because where you are happily sitting next to your loved one another one is crying in pain because they can still remember that fleeting moment that they felt their loved ones pass through them as if to give them - one last touch.
I enclosed a photo that I got in an email. I can not take credit for it nor do I know where it came from. As an American, as a Human - I respect and see more to that photo than anyone who only gives in a 2 second glance.
