Where were you - NEVER FORGET

I can't believe it's been 9 years since that horrible day! It is a day that I will never forget, I can go back to everything about that day, even now. That incredibly empty feeling - the questions, I remember falling to my knees and asking God what was happening!!! My husband was at school, he had been laid off from Oneida Ltd. and recently started in a carpentry and masonry program at a local college. My oldest son was actually in Orlando with his dad, supposed to get on an airplane that morning to fly home. My brother was in New York City, the first plane had flown past his office building. My second son was just a year old. I felt so helpless. I remember talking to my brother on the phone FINALLY - it had only been a couple of hours but it felt like days!! He told me he was walking towards the towers to see if he could help - I begged him not to go any closer to that area. He was trying to find a place to give blood but the lines were so long and they were turning people away. It's too bad they don't have that problem 9 years later... My husband did get out early that day and I remember rushing out to the driveway and just hugging him forever - it was a picture perfect day as far as the weather but there has never been a darker day in America. It took my son 3 more days to get home, they finally were able t rent a vehicle and drive home. I was never so happy to see that boy than that day. Now, 9 years later, that little boy is off to prepare for a year in Iraq - Iraq, the place where all the combat troops have been pulled from -yet my son, who is in the Navy, is being moved into an Army training program and going to an Army base for a whole year in Iraq. I don't understand it, I've given it to God, and have faith that he will take care of my little boy.

We visited the former site of the twin towers a few years ago - it was the most moving thing I've ever done. The photos and captions under them, hanging on the chain link fence were heartwrenching. One photo that i remember very vividly was of a female officer walking a man out to safety. The caption read that she went back in to help more people and died when the tower collapsed. I stood there with my brother, crying. Photo after photo, an amazing tribute to those heroes. A year later we went back and visited Battery Park - saw the eternal flame and the statue that had stood in Tower that somehow survived the collapse. Another very moving moment.


I've spent a little time tonight watching video on line of the attacks - not that I need to, the images are burned into my brain forever - but I can't help but read a few of the comments under each video - the hatred that I read is very sad. We can't hate all Muslims because of the attacks - the extremists are the ones that attacked us. It's like grouping all of anything together and saying they're all alike - some Catholic priests did some horrible things to young children - does that mean all Catholic Priests are bad??? It's wrong to blame everyone for the horrific deeds of a few, we have to move on and more forward - Jesus asked God to forgive those that nailed him to the cross before he died - we have to let go of the hatred, especially to the innocent, and honor the memory of those that we lost that day. Where were you when the world stopped turning, on that September Day?? I'm sure you'll never forget, just like I won't...