Remembering September 11th

I haven't watched the footage in many years.  Today I did.  While I saw the initial impact of the second plane, that Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment.  I have an ultrasound from the day the towers fell of my daughter Faith.  She was the size of a mustard seed.  The doctor said, "How could you have known you were pregnant, she's just a dot."  Having that ultrasound spared me the initial viewing of the towers falling in real time.  But I watched it all that afternoon and evening, and my heart like that of the nation, broke into as many pieces as the World Trade Center, Pentagon and those four planes. 

What I remember of those days is the tremendous courage of the firemen and personnel who went up into those two buildings.  I remember all the false reports.  I remember being grateful for cell phones and for the fact that my husband and a friend decided to come home even though they had to hoof it part of the way to get to an open metro station.   Listening to the air force fly fighters overhead felt eerie that evening and the next and the next and I wondered if I'd ever hear a plane fly by without flinching again.  Suddenly living just outside of DC felt like I was sitting on a giant target and sending my husband into the city two blocks from the White House, something terribly fraught with peril.   The first day he went back to work, I felt positively jumpy the whole day and became temporarily addicted to having the news on wherever I was, 24-7.  I was terribly afraid of something happening, and of somehow not knowing. 

Nine years later, the video is still painfully raw when you watch it unedited, unscripted.   The pictures of people covered in the soot of 105 floors still haunts, as do all the pictures of memorials from people looking for loved ones who never got to come home after that picture perfect fall morning. 

So hug your children, call your folks and fly the flag.  Thank God for those who are willing to put themselves in harm's way to protect our freedoms and secure our liberties; give blood and if you can, donate to a charity for those who sacrifice everything.  Remember the 2,977 people lost and all the families that were ripped apart as a result.  Say a prayer for our country, for everyone, and never, never forget.