September 11, 2001

After watching the movie "Flight 93" on the A&E Channel tonight, I decided to dedicate my post to remembering that awful day, the horrors that took place and my emotions and thoughts..............

I remember waking up to see Misty and Denny off then going back to bed as I had stayed up quite late the night before and wanted to catch a few more "Z's".
Around 8:55am I was awakened by the phone ringing and staggered out of bed to go answer it. It was my Mom and she said very flatly, "turn on your TV...something bad has happened.".....{Later, thinking back to the exact beginning of that horrible day, I recalled that I don't think I have ever heard my Mom's voice sound that way.}
When I flipped on the TV it was on every channel already. My eyes and ears could not adjust to what they were seeing or hearing!
...... 'A big building?....somewhere?.....lots of smoke and fire?'......So I just sat there with my Mom on the phone trying to get a grasp on just what exactly had happened.

Then I saw what had caused all the smoke and fire coming from the tall building on TV! It was an airplane that had run into it and they were showing an "instant replay" on the news! Just when I thought I had it all figured out, the newscaster came on and said that it was not an "instant replay" but another plane hitting the second tower and that it was surely not accidental but a clear terrorist attack on New York!

At that moment I remember thinking that I needed to get woke up real quick because things were happening too fast and I was starting to get scared. After telling my Mom that I would call her back later, I immediately went off to the kitchen to start some coffee, keeping the sound turned up on both TVs as I went quickly about this task. I called Denny at work as the coffee was brewing and he said they had the news on there too and assured me everything was OK.

As a little more time went by, I found myself getting increasingly anxious and thinking all sorts of horrible things that might happen. Would there be more attacks close by? Possibly a nuke? People running in the streets with guns? It's amazing how your mind can play tricks with you when you are afraid and all by yourself!

At 9:40am, while watching both towers burn with talk off possible collapse, the news cut to an alert that the Pentagon had just been hit by another plane. I think I was in the bedroom about this time sitting on the unmade bed that I had been trying to make but kept stopping to watch the news.
I remember clearly that this was the final news that set me off into a panic, calling Denny and begging him to leave work, stop by the Middle School to pick up Misty and to please come home where we could all be together!! I honestly felt like it was the end of the world!
He again assured me that everything was going to be OK and that if he began to feel differently at anytime soon, would do as I'd asked...so I tried to compose myself yet again and kept glued to the TV.

The towers collapsed not long after that....the South tower at 9:50am and then the North at 10:29am. It was a horriflying thing to watch, especially thinking of all those people who were still inside.
In between the two collapses, and unknown to me and many others at that time, another hijacked plane was flying overhead very close to the Marietta/Parkersburg border area! This was Flight 93 that had flown towards Cleveland then made a Southeastern turn to head back towards Washington DC {in theory only...no one really knows where it was headed} but instead crashed into a field 80 miles south east of Pittsburgh.

I was never so thankful when Misty came home from school later on as I had entertained going to pick her up myself many times during the course of the day! I remember calling her Volleyball coach, Chris, and asking him if they still planned on going to their away game that evening. He seemed unsure of what to do so I asked him to please cancel so the girls could stay home with their families which he thankfully did.
Misty knew something was going on because all the teachers were talking and acting weird at school so I began to fill her in on the events, being careful not to scare her too much, as we watched the news together and waited for Denny to come home too.

Two other events that seem to stick in my head from the day are going outside and looking up...as if to justify the fact that for the first time in my/our lifetime, there were absolutely no airplanes taking off or flying anywhere in the US! For some reason that seemed incredibly eerie to me!
Another was waiting for President Bush to come on TV and address the nation. Several times during the day the news casts had made note that he was "in hiding" somewhere as was the Vice-President so it was good to see him and be reassured.

In the days that followed I remember staying pretty much "glued" to the TV as were many people I am sure. It seemed we had soo much work to do to try to get things back to some sort of "normalcy".

At times 9-11 seems like it happened such a long time ago and others it is so vivid in my memory that every single detail is clear and crisp! {Sort of like the day itself which was described by many as one of the most beautiful, sunny September days they recall!}
I think it is important to never forget that tragic day and all the people it affected.