9/11 20th Anniversary Remembrance by Michelle Menna

9/11 20th Anniversary Remembrance by Michelle Menna https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik In remembrance of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, please take a minute to reflect on where you were that day and post your memory of that day. Also, if you would like to share, please include how that day impacted you/your life. en-us 2021-09-06 23:31:53 UTC 2025-12-13 19:30:13 UTC hello@padlet.com sandra_tucker https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1722991343 I was in my classroom with my marketing students that morning. We were asked to turn our televisions on right after the 1st tower was hit, not knowing there was more tragedy to come. It was devastating to watch the other two crashes as they happened. Lots of tears and fear among all of us that day, especially for those who had family working at the Pentagon.]]> 2021-09-07 21:38:10 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1722991343 I was teaching English 12 at Oakton that morning. Mr. Ketch stuck his head in my room and said, "turn on your TV." We watched coverage of New York, and I will never forget the change in the room when the scrolling chyron on the bottom of the news screen changed from coverage of New York to "there is smoke reported on the downtown mall"...then "The Pentagon is on fire..." I had multiple students in the room with parents at the Pentagon - all of those kids' parents were okay - but it was scary. I will also never forget the "beee booo beeep, all circuits are busy" when I tried to call my wife. I don't think I had heard that tone and message since I was a child and I don't think I have heard it since. https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1722992688 2021-09-07 21:39:15 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1722992688 I was teaching English 12 at Oakton that morning. Mr. Ketch stuck his head in my room and said, "turn on your TV." We watched coverage of New York, and I will never forget the change in the room when the scrolling chyron on the bottom of the news screen changed from coverage of New York to "there is smoke reported on the downtown mall"...then "The Pentagon is on fire..." I had multiple students in the room with parents at the Pentagon - all of those kids' parents were okay - but it was scary. I will also never forget the "beee booo beeep, all circuits are busy" when I tried to call my wife. I don't think I had heard that tone and message since I was a child and I don't think I have heard it since. paulkoch https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1722994402 2021-09-07 21:40:36 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1722994402 Spytek https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1723006123 I was 6 when the planes hit, sitting in my 1st grade classroom. My elementary school was under the path of the plane that ended up in the Pentagon - just a couple miles from the Pentagon itself.

I remember classes had just started when there was an announcement for all lessons to stop. No one told us what was happening, just that our parents were coming to get us. I spent a couple of hours drawing flowers.

We never knew where my dad was working, due to the classified nature of his job. Sometimes he was in the Pentagon, sometimes at NGA headquarters, or sometimes at secret location(s) that we couldn't be told about.

My mom knew better than to try and contact him. She couldn't normally, and definitely wouldn't be able to with what was happening. Though, if she had, she would have found him at the dentist office having his routine cleaning done (he forgot to tell her about it, and got an earful when he finally showed up unharmed).

Meanwhile, the parents who were reachable in my neighborhood worked together to collect kids from the different schools - my mom got the preschoolers (including my younger brother), and I, along with Sarah, Geoffrey, and Zach, was picked up by the Greenwalts.

Traffic home was terrible, especially because to get home we had to pass the Pentagon, specifically the side that was hit. I remember the plane carcass, and the blackened wall and general carnage.

There was one of those small trees that had only been growing for a few years, with the support lines still attached. It's top had been burned away as the plane skimmed it on its way down, but the speed of the plane was such that the leaves on the lower branches were still green.

I drove by the wreckage every day on my way home from school as part of a carpool. I can still remember when they pulled out the plane, and the slow process of rebuilding. There was so much black staining on the white stone from the impact and explosion, to me even now that wall seems much too white.]]> 2021-09-07 21:51:11 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1723006123 Ms. Mellott https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1723019758 I remember I was in 3rd grade. I lived in Winchester so I wasn’t super close to DC, but my dad worked for the FAA in Leesburg so he was aware of what was going on pretty quickly. I remember students in my class crying because their family lived in NYC and one of my classmates had an uncle who died in the towers. I just remember being scared and sad watching the news play the towers falling over and over again. ]]> 2021-09-07 22:03:47 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1723019758 kathryntaylor1 https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1723042724 I was in college when the planes hit, sitting in an early morning class. I wasn't aware of the attack until I got home (this is before news alerts on your phone). I later learned that my friend's uncle was a pilot on one of those planes. I also learned of friends' relatives who lost their lives in the towers. I couldn't believe that something like this, to this extent, could happen in the US. I felt extreme sorrow for the lives lost and their families. I'll never forget the footage of President Bush being informed of the attacks, while he was reading to a class of young students. I hope that a tragedy like this never happens again in the US.]]> 2021-09-07 22:26:43 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1723042724 Karen Curran https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1723097155 I was teaching in Brunswick, MD and I went down to the library to make some copies (we only had one small copier back then). The TV was on and I watched with the librarians and admin as the second plane struck the towers and then the Pentagon was hit. I remember my AP saying "this has Bin Laden written all over it." I taught several students whose parents worked at the Pentagon and I had to compose myself as I returned to class. Several kids had to make it through the day without hearing from their parents and knowing if they were okay. I remember one particular kid who was so happy that his mom stayed home from work that day to meet the refrigerator repairman. His mom's office was hit in the Pentagon attack.

I remember trying to reach my husband and all circuits were busy. He was supposed to be in a meeting in DC. Luckily, that meeting was canceled and he was safe.

I remember my best friend's husband being traumatized as he was in a meeting in Pentagon City and watched as the plane crashed into the Pentagon.

I remember picking up my son from daycare - he was the last toddler there as all the other parents had picked up their kids as soon as they heard. I had to stay at work with my "other" kids who needed me to stay with them until they could make contact with their parents. ]]> 2021-09-07 23:18:59 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1723097155 Katy Greiner katy_greiner https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1723665257 I was in 2nd grade. Back then, they announced early dismissals over the classroom loudspeaker. Our teacher knew something was up when the front office secretary came on and announced five names in a row for early dismissal. None of the kids had known they were leaving early. When the next batch of 4 or 5 kids was called, I heard my name and I was confused. I saw my mom in the hallway and stopped in my tracks, crossing my arms. "Why am I going home?" I demanded. "I am not sick!"
9/11 and its media coverage shaped my childhood. It was dark -- all of the "bad guys" in our games were terrorists. We had a "plan" for what to do if Bin Laden came into our backyard. I had recurring dreams of planes hitting my elementary school and us "hiding" on the rooftop. I look back on that now and think of how strange it was to view such a serious world event that way, but as 7 year-old, it was the only way we knew how to process.
As I got older, I learned of a dear friend in college who was from Chicago. His father had a meeting in the Pentagon on the side the plane hit. He'd gone to the other side of the building for some unknown reason (lost?); he survived, but his family, sure he had passed with no way to contact him, gathered at his home. He hitchhiked home from DC to Chicago. When he arrived a day later, he walked in on his family planning his funeral. He and his wife and children were never the same.
A few years after I heard his story, I had the privilege of visiting some of the New York City firemen on board their ship "343" in honor of how many firemen sacrificed their lives saving others that day. Each of the firemen knew so many of those who had passed away. How terrifyingly horrid, to lose so many friends and colleagues in one day. How shockingly hard, to be the ones to survive. ]]> 2021-09-08 03:22:15 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1723665257 Ms. Barnes marybarnes3 https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1724719417 I was working for AOL (at the time, the largest presence on the internet)and watched the planes hit from the newsroom. It was surreal. Then panic set in since we were so close to Dulles airport and we were told to evacuate. It was chaos in the parking lot as people rushed home to love ones. After the initial day though we re-grouped and we worked in shifts 24X7 for several weeks covering the stories as they unfolded. We had to learn a "new normal" on how to communicate with members. I still remember the beautiful online tributes to those who lost loved ones and still have a lot of screenshot from those early days.
Prior to AOL I worked for American Express. I would often stay at the Marriott at the bottom of one of the twin towers. You would often look out your window in the morning and see fire trucks below. You basically ignored them thinking they were there to check for a potential gas leak. I can understand why people were not in a hurry to move on that morning.]]> 2021-09-08 12:45:46 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1724719417 Emily Gilmore emilygilmore1 https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1724770355 I was in college. Right before I left for my 9 a.m. class I opened AOL Instant Messenger, and there was a headline that said a plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center. I thought it was strange, but I went on to class as normal. I'm pretty sure I got back home just in time to see the second tower fall. My memory is hazy on this detail; we watched the footage of the towers falling so many times that day that it's possible I didn't actually see it as it happened and I just remember it that way, but the timeline matches up. Regardless, while I was gone, the other three planes had crashed and the first tower had fallen.
The rest of the day was surreal. I had an overwhelming urge to talk to my parents even though we didn't know anyone who might be in danger, but I couldn't get through (I imagine a lot of people were trying to call their parents that day). U.Va. didn't cancel classes as an institution, but most professors did individually. I did have to go to one class that afternoon, and the professor said she didn't really know what else to do, so we might as well have class to try to maintain some sense of normalcy, but no one's heart was in it.
We were all uncertain and scared and grieving a way of life that had changed over the course of a morning. The attacks brought out the best and the worst (but mostly the best) in this country in a way I had never imagined possible. In the weeks and months that followed, the genuine outpouring of love for our country and our fellow citizens struck me the more than the fear and lashing out, and it's wild to me that it's been so long that we've made the transition from the "post-9/11 world" to just "the world that we live in." ]]> 2021-09-08 13:04:14 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1724770355 Chrissy Gates https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1724804996 I was in a small basement, attending a toddler play group with my son who was almost two years old. One of the mom's received a terrifying phone call, instructing us to turn on the news. We sat huddled together, embracing our small children with doubt and fear. The day felt forever long as we realized that we would have ties to people who were terrorized to the point of losing a loved one. Unfortunately, that realization came to be a reality. Families were forever changed in America that day. Our world immediately turned into a chaotic nightmare of living in a world where peace was no longer taken for granted. I still grieve for a friend who lost her son in The World Trade Center. She has touched so many lives with her goodness and kindness; I only wish that she could experience true joy again. That horrendous day will never be forgotten.]]> 2021-09-08 13:15:35 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1724804996 Traci Swack https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1724821857 I was in an 8th grade team meeting when I heard the news. I was totally stunned, but even more so when I found out it was a terrorist attack. I could not believe something this horrific just happened in our country. I remember becoming fearful for my son's well being, as well as, my family's well being. I wanted so badly to leave work and just hold my son in my arms. He had just turned 7 a couple weeks before the attack. I had a couple of colleagues who were beside themselves, because they were unsure if their family members were among those who had lost their lives at the Pentagon. That night, it became too much for me to continue watching the news replay the footage over and over again. My chest felt so heavy because my heart was aching so badly for everyone and all the uncertainty that surrounded the country. Besides, the heaviness I was feeling, how was I supposed to explain this devastating event to my 7 year old. ]]> 2021-09-08 13:20:20 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1724821857 Todd Kinkead https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1724949030 I was a Police Sergeant with the Fairfax County Police Department. I watched on the morning news and saw what was happening. I was currently working an evening shift, but I got ready and drove right into the police station where I was working anyway, well ahead of my shift that day. I still remember how quiet the sky was in terms of airplanes near Dulles. There were two fighter jets flying low the length of rt 50 as I headed east towards Fair Oaks. That entire day was surreal and full of conflicting emotions, anger, shock and disbelief. ]]> 2021-09-08 13:57:13 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1724949030 Chris Schamus christopherschamus https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1725010682 I was in 3rd grade. One by one, each of my classmates started getting picked up by their parents. Teachers started congregating outside of each classroom. Some of them had been watching the news, but they did their best to shield us from what was happening until our parents got there, and thought it would be best not to turn on the TV's in the classrooms. My mom worked at Stone Bridge High School at the time, so I was one of the last kids to be picked up, as she needed to tend to all the students there. She had called my school, knew that I was safe there and that I wasn't scared, just confused.

My parents had just separated the week prior so you can imagine how surprised I was to see my Dad back in the house when I walked in from school that day. I was happy at first until I noticed the mood in the room. My brother and sister returned home from school. We had the news on the rest of the day. At this point I was scared. I hid behind the couch trying to make sense of what was happening, but as an 8 year old, it was tough. My Dad ended up staying for another week as family time was much needed the next few days.

My entire extended family at the time lived within 40 minutes of New York City. We were lucky enough that our loved ones were all okay. A good friend of mine's Dad was supposed to be in the North Tower that morning for a meeting. He was running late and for whatever reason that may have been, it saved his life. While we did not know anyone personally who lost their life that day, I can still remember the fear we all felt in the days to come. I still find myself watching videos of that day - even 20 years later, I can't believe it actually happened. I may have only been 8 years old, but it is certainly a day that I will never forget.]]> 2021-09-08 14:15:17 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1725010682 RMC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1725338279 I was volunteering at my kids' school and the Admin team turned on the televisions in the main hall. The televisions were used exclusively for announcements. Disbelief and shock, as the second plane struck. Fear set in and all I could think was, "I have to get my kids and go home now!" On the way home, guards with rifles were stationed in front of buildings I drove by every day and never knew were government facilities. Once home, I watched again, tried to distract, shelter and provide appropriate answers to small kids who did not understand any of this. I kept it together until bedtime. Alone, I counted my blessings and cried. ]]> 2021-09-08 15:52:44 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1725338279 Tori Webb victoriawebb2 https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1725764698 It was my first day of preschool. My mom dropped me off and took my younger sister with her to get a car wash. While sitting in the car wash, she had the radio playing, and that was when she first heard the news. At the time, parents were paging the preschool teachers. Since my mom was right around the corner, she was one of the first parents to come pick up their child. Since I was only 3, I don't have any vivid memories, but I have tried my best to talk to others about where they were on 9/11, as well as read stories and watch documentaries to learn more about what a horrifying, devastating, and shocking day it was.]]> 2021-09-08 18:32:23 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1725764698 Elizabeth Bush- I didn't know if my dad was working in the Pentagon that day or not. I was a freshman in college in North Carolina. My dad travelled between government and military locations in the DC area. He was never able to be reached by phone so I couldn't locate him for a while. When I called my mother she was still asleep and I had to give her a brief synopsis of what had happened while trying to suppress tears. She was able to let me know that my dad was not in the Pentagon that day. Since I was in North Carolina at college, I felt so removed and disconnected from friends and family who lived in Northern Virginia. For the people I was around at college it was something that was happening somewhere else, but for me it was happening where I was from and to people I knew. https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1725971963 \

]]> 2021-09-08 20:12:59 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1725971963 Lisa Catello https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1726703266 My husband is an airline Pilot for United. He was in bed sleeping when the plane hit the first tower. Once the news identified the planes flown into the towers as United airlines, our phone was ringing off the hook to see where my husband was, and if he was OK. The scariest part about the incident was that my husband flew the same Boston flight that hit one of the towers the day prior. It is a day I'll never forget, as the skies above went silent except for 2 fighter jets screaming by to get up to NYC. I am thankful my husband was not in the sky that day. The pilots and flight attendants who fought so bravely against the terrorists to try save theirs and their passengers lives will never be forgotten!]]> 2021-09-09 02:40:23 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1726703266 Nicole Turner nturner87 https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1727973741 I was a sophomore in high school, in Utah. We didn't turn on the TV before school at our house and so I had no idea about anything before I went to school. In my first class, a religion class, the teacher kept talking about 'what happened today' and when bad things happen during his lesson. I remember being confused about why he kept talking like that and was so serious, usually he was a very jokey kind of person. It wasn't until the school announcements that I found out what happened. Many teachers had the news on all day, but all my teachers kept teaching, maybe with the news on silent in the background, bless their hearts. They were so strong, they must have felt much deeper the impact of what was happening but they strove to keep things going. I remember the towers falling and everyone going silent. What do you say?
We didn't listen to the news at school and I don't recall having it on once I got home either, though it probably was at least a little. I do remember that I could not understand, I couldn't process what had happened on a deeper level. I knew what was happening/had happened but I needed more information. It didn't seem real, it was a terrible thing far away that I couldn't internalize. We must have gone to bed early that night, or it could be the news was just on constantly and not just during it's usual time slots, because I remember sneaking back upstairs to watch the news- very very quietly, in the dark. I watched until they showed video of people jumping out of windows from the top floors to escape- then I turned it off. I still see that image play in my head whenever I think about it.]]> 2021-09-09 13:14:34 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1727973741 Steven Mobley https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1728198232 I was in accounting class at Broad Run high school when the SRO came in and dropped off a note. Mr. Davis read the note and the reaction from the students was probably what you wouldn't expect. The note said a plane hit the WTC in NY. So I reaction was mild. Why would they send a note around saying a small plane accidentally hit one of the twin towers? Leaving that class and headed towards Calc, where the TV was on, I could see all of my assumptions were incorrect. It wasn't a small plane. It wasn't an accident. It wasn't one of the buildings. My reaction was probably exactly what you would expect. It was shock. Disbelief. It was looking around trying to make sense of what I was seeing. It was something that was unbelievable for so many reasons, now believable. This was our generations Pearl Harbor, our JFK assassination. I can still feel that feeling that I had that moment, the rest of the day, and many days after that. The uneasy, somewhat sick, nauseous feeling. ]]> 2021-09-09 14:16:48 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1728198232 Kayla Hennessey https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1729072334 I was in Ms. Rzewski's 3rd grade class at Mill Run at the time. We were in music class and they started calling individual students names over the loud speaker for early dismissal. By the time our music class was over, there were only a few of us left. As we walked back to our classroom their was a sea of parents trying to sign out their kids early. I remember thinking "what is going on?" and "why aren't I being picked up??"

When we got back into the classroom I remember Ms. Rzewski telling those of us who were still left (there was maybe 5 of us left the rest of the day) that we shouldn't worry but that there had been a plane accident in New York and the Pentagon. I quickly was relieved knowing that my dad wasn't traveling at the time but trying to piece together why it seemed like it was that big of a deal for everyone to be leaving school early.

When I got off of the bus at our normal time with my neighbors, we all were mad at our parents for letting us be some of the only kids that were left at school that day! Once we got home and my parents actually explained what was happening and that they all decided as neighbors that we would all be safe still at school I started to understand. It really started to sink in when they let me watch the news coverage about it the rest of the day.
To this day I can't see anything about 9/11 without getting choked up.]]> 2021-09-09 19:33:37 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1729072334 Meghan Adair meghan_adair1 https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1729252217 I was a freshman in college at Sacred Heart University in CT -- walking in to my early morning English class. Everyone was crowded around the TVs in the hallway. Being from NY, we initially assumed someone made a terrible mistake and flew too low crashing into the tower. By the time I was out of class we were watching for updates and I saw the 2nd plane hit. I was so worried because my father was supposed to be taking a class in the WTC. I couldn't call home (Long Island) to check on him because the phone lines were all jammed. Then we got word about the Pentagon and it just felt so surreal. (My future father in law was a General in the office that was hit -- luckily he was out of office that day at Ft. Bragg) My brother recently graduated from West Point and so did his wife...I immediately tried to get in touch with them but the phone lines just were not working. He finally got through to me that night to tell me he had to deploy. Couldn't tell me where, but that he had to go. I heard back from my Dad -- and he was ok. The training had shifted to the following week. While I felt profound relief, there was so much sadness and uncertainty for what was to come. We knew a lot of folks who did not make it home that day. We are also a big military family. Without a doubt this moment reshaped everything about my life going forward.]]> 2021-09-09 21:35:49 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1729252217 Jennifer Cavanaugh https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1729460246 I was teaching at J.E.B. Stuart High School in Fairfax County. I actually remember driving into work that day. The sky was so blue. There was not a cloud in the sky as I drove on 66 to Falls Church. I was teaching my second class of the day when a colleague knocked on my trailer door and handed me a folded piece of paper that described what had just happened in New York City. I did not have a TV in my room so I got on my computer to find out more but could not get much info because everything was so slow. After that block was over, I found out the Pentagon had been hit. At the time, my dad worked in Crystal City for a defense contractor and would often visit the Pentagon for business and I did not know if he was at the Pentagon that day. I got a colleague to cover my class and I went to the workroom to call my dad but all the lines were ringing busy. I could not reach him. I eventually talked to my mom who had talked to him and she told me he was okay. The rest of the day is a blur except for the drive home. I drove home on Route 50 which is normally jam packed with traffic. On this day, I was one of the few cars on the road as I drove home around 3:00 pm. ]]> 2021-09-10 00:25:37 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1729460246 catherinemccarty https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1730660170 I was working in customer service at the time and the customer on the phone asked if I had a tv nearby. Well of course not, but we had a radio… she told me what happened and we turned on the news. Eventually finding a tv in the mechanics break room later on. We’d take short breaks through the day to watch the news and learn what we could. It was so confusing. I was in Louisville, KY at the time and felt very removed from things. Unaffected. Yet very affected. Months later, a new employee started and she had been working in Pentagon City that day. She saw the plane fly unusually low past her building on its way to crash into the Pentagon. She quit her job and moved to be with her daughter in KY. She knew so many who’d died. It was something she thought about daily. I feel lucky to be one of what feels like few people who weren’t directly related to the events that day. Sigh. ]]> 2021-09-10 11:40:40 UTC https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1730660170 Jeanine Michaelian https://padlet.com/michellemenna/g7w2olsdtyud5gik/wish/1731128040 I remember that day, the day when everything changed. When time stopped and our world changed forever. The day we lost our innocence our sense of safety. I had just dropped my kids off at school – one was in kindergarten and the other in second grade. I went to breakfast with some friends at a nearby diner. We had just settled in our booth when someone came running in and shouted, “Turn on the TV!” We didn’t want the TV on – we wanted to chat. But the owner did turn on the TV just in time to see the plane hit the second tower. None of us understood or could comprehend what he had just seen. Was it real? Could this really have just happened, especially to the United States? One thing we all knew without saying it – everything changed. Everything.

We all went straight to the school and picked up our kids. We didn’t know what was going on, but I knew what ever it was, I wanted my kids at home with me. My kids didn’t understand and I didn’t know what to tell them. We watched the news and saw that the Pentagon was attacked. We now knew this was not a horrible accident, this was an all out war. Then came the gut wrenching fear. We watched as the towers burned and watched panicked people jump from the towers. How awful must it have been in that building – the heat, the smoke, the fire - to think the only option you had was to jump. And then, the unimaginable happened. The towers fell, one after the other. It was agony to know how we had just watched hundreds, if not thousands of people die on live TV. Regular people like you and me, died right before our eyes. The horror only was amplified when we realized how many firefighters and police officers, the ones than ran into the inferno to help people, had died as well.

There is so much more to say. It’s hard to find the words to explain how everyone knew in their hearts that everything had changed. The world we knew was over. Our innocence was shattered. We clung to one another in support. Flags flew everywhere, in our neighborhoods, in the streets, in the cities and towns. Around the world, nations came together to support the United States by flying our flags in their countries as well. We cried, we became resolute, and we said we would never forget what happened on that day. Twenty years and it still hurts. We will never forget.

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