Ten years ago today, my kids had been dropped off at school. It was a beautiful, sunny late summer day. I sat with a cup of coffee and turned on the TV. My phone rang, it was my girlfriend on her way into NYC for her weekly "day in the market", always a Tuesday -- the day she would go to the garment district to purchase new items for her family's store. I muted the TV so I could keep her company as she drove and then it happened, the first news interruption showing that something was terribly wrong at the World Trade Center. The images on the TV were horrific. Never imagining terrorism, I told her to take a different route into the city as she was driving towards the tunnel that lets out right near the WTC. I thought she would hit a backlog of traffic and wanted to help her avoid it. Then, after turning up the sound and seeing more images, I told her to turn around and go home!
I live in a borough of New York, on a peninsula where generations of firefighters also live. The view leaving my neighborhood every day was of the NYC skyline and the majestic Twin Towers. Who knew as I watched these horrifying news clips that the view would be forever altered, that life in NYC would forever be changed. The smoke and ash rose and the winds brought it over the area where I live, an eerie silence with it. Our little neighborhood lost 59 people on 9-11.
My children were released from school early on that Tuesday and we sat glued to the TV. It has been ten years, my kids are adults and the memories are as vivid today as when I first saw the Twin Towers hit and ultimately fall. I hope no one ever forgets that day or the victims. My heart goes out to the families who lost loved ones. I cannot offer enough thanks to the men and women who every day defend the US against terrorism so that this will never happen again. We as a country must NEVER FORGET.
Please feel free to comment and share your memories......................
Below, views from my neighborhood of lower Manhattan before and after 9-11-01.
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