Like a lot of people, I remember the moment I heard what was happening very clearly. I received a phone call from my then boyfriend who told me that the first tower had been hit by a plane. Clearly that was asinineso I assumed he was joking. He kept telling me to turn on the TV and eventually I was persuaded. Needless to say, I was shocked. I stayed glued to the TV all day. I watched as the 2nd plane hit while the newscaster talked right over it about something else until he realized what was happening. And then…the collapse.
I watched in shock and horror while “that’s my home!” ran through my head. I didn’t live in NYC at the time, but I was close enough that most people knew someone who was affected by the event. I had lived in NYC not too many years prior and, unknown to me at the time, I would live there again in a year or two. My father worked in NYC at the time I was born – in fact, he worked in a building across the street that stood covered in a black tarp for years after the event. The company he worked for was headquartered in the World Trade Center that day. He happened to be on a trip to the West Coast at the time and his return home was delayed by the understandable air traffic issues.
I didn’t personally know anyone who lost their life that day, but I definitely felt a loss. I still don’t quite know what that loss was, but every year I shed a few tears. To me, New York City is home. It always was and always will be. I may not live there now and may never again, but it’s a place that I love, where I actually feel safe. It’s home.
There’s so much more I could say, buy it really means nothing. I feel that it’s an important day that deserves remembering. So that’s what we’re doing today – remembering. I hope you all take a moment today to remember.
