Where Were You Nine Years Ago Today?

[Corkey]

I awoke at about 9 am pdt, my ex told me about it, I watched in horror until I had to go to work. At work they still had the flag at full staff. I put our flag at half staff before entering the building. We had a huge big screen tv in the break room, everyone was in it, 150 people in the room and not a word was spoken. The conveyor belts had been turned off, the drivers told that they would get their loads tomorrow and our distribution center manager was in NYC, she had had a meeting that day scheduled in tower 1, she did not make the meeting. She was desperately trying to get out of NY, and ended up renting a car and driving back to CA.
That day, nothing came in or went out except tears and hugs.
Bless the men and women who died that day, and their families, we shall never forget.

[Kenna]

At work when one of my Project Managers yelled down the hall that they heard on the radio that the "Towers just fell"... from that, everyone swarmed into his little office to listen... in shock and disbelief. As the radio cut out with static, I honestly didn't believe what I was hearing... I was in an Orson Welles fog as if I was listening to his 1938 The War Of The Worlds.

At lunch, I rushed home to watch the news...Watching the planes hit and then the aftermath shook me out of that Orson Welles fog. While sitting there, my old boss from the camera shop called and told me that one of our dear friends were among the missing at the Pentagon. I was in so much shock that I didn't cry or grieve for some time. To add, my sorrow, shock and "flight" response to the news about the plane in Shanksville (not far from where my son was living and from an old family homestead).

I still have a lot of unresolved feelings, grief and PTSD from that day. It's still hard to talk about or express. It still makes my chest tight.

[Luv]

I was on my way to work pulling up the drive to the entrance gate,,and heard somethin on the radio,,I thought they were bs'n..when I got inside the facility I saw the news,,and was shocked. I guess we never expected we would ever get attacked. I was shocked,,and then I got pissed..

One of my bosses we got the next year was telling how he and his wife were in NYC,,and his wife wanted to stop in a shop,,they were on their way to the Gap store in one of the WTC buildings..that stop in the small shop saved their lived,,that 15-20 minutes..as he told this story he got all choked up. One of the employess at the Fishkill facility had a rental car and was able to get to them some how and get them out of NYC..

[dark_crystal]

i was on my way to work when the news dept broke into the radio programming and announced the first plane had hit the first tower....at that point they weren't even speculating on whether it was an accident or a terror attack...by the time i got to my office lot the second plane had struck...

i feel really blessed that i was working at the time in a mortgage brokerage owned by a Lebanese man and working alongside another lebanese woman and a cuban man married to a syrian woman...it was heartbreaking how terrified they were of repercussions against arabs in general...everyone rushed out to get their kids out of school and barricade themselves in their homes

[lipstixgal]

I was living in KC MO at the time and turned on the tv. My ex-girlfriend called and said turn on the tv and I said why and she just said turn on the tv then I called my mother who lived in NJ at the time and told her to turn on the tv we were shocked,my mother lived at the time very close to NY so pieces of paper were flying all over the place in our parking lot it was sad to say the least and the clean up effort lasted for a long time...

[Hack]

I was driving to my office in downtown Lansing. I worked for the state Legislature at the time, and had a nice corner office on the top floor of what was, at the time, the second tallest office building in this cow town.

I was just pulling in to the parking lot where I parked and listening to NPR. An announcer came on at the tail end of the news and said something about a plane hitting the World Trade Center in NYC. But they didn't have a lot of details. It was 9 a.m. and the BBC News would always come on at that time on the NPR station I listened to every morning. So, as the BBC came on their presenter was in hysterics on the air about the WTC being hit by a jetliner. WTF? I walked quickly the 4 blocks to my office building, went up to my office and flipped on CNN. I had a small TV in my office to monitor news broadcasts. Several of my colleagues started gathering, and we watched the news until about 11 a.m. That's when they evacuated my building because we were one of the tallest buildings (and chockful of politicians) in the city. My partner at the time had already called me begging me in tears to come home. I left with the rest of my staff.

When I got home, we spent the entire day watching the news. We watched the news for the next several days non-stop. I remember by that Saturday, I couldn't take watching the news anymore. And that's saying a lot because I am a total media junkie. The story that really got to me was the one about the woman trapped in the restaurant at the top of the towers, calling her husband in San Francisco and leaving him a message on their answering machine because he was sound asleep. They played the message on CNN and the fear in her voice coupled with the total devastation on his face...that really got to me. They were young, only married a few months, I think. That Saturday, I went birdwatching. September is not the greatest month for birdwatching in Michigan, but the air was crisp, the day was sunny and I needed to be outside. The nature area where I went birdwatching was completely empty of people. Planes would fly over me, and I would stop and look up at every one. It took me months to stop that behavior.

On Sept. 12, my partner and I went out to dinner. We made it a point to go to our favorite Middle Eastern restaurant in East Lansing. We were saddened to read a note on the door that the owner put up saying, yes, he was Muslim, but he was appalled by the terrorist attack. We made sure we ate there once or twice a week for several months. We didn't want him to go out of business (he's still open today). I remember being in Detroit a few times for work in the months after 9-11 and sensing the anxiety in the city, which is home to the largest Middle Eastern population outside of the Middle East. All the talk of "sleeper cells" in Detroit and being stopped for "driving while Muslim." Scary times.

This past June, I had the honor of visiting the WTC site and the 9-11 Memorial Center in NYC while I was there on vacation. What a poignant and powerful place. I wept in the memorial center, in the room filled with photos of all the people who died. The enormity of it all is what stays with you, I think. Even when you are far removed from NYC, living in Michigan, that day and the aftermath are so indelible.

Jake

[SexyVirgo91753]

I was getting ready for work and I never ever put the tv on, but
this morning, for some reason, I did. I watched it happen.
I thought, "Okay, I'm dreaming, this is a dream". It was SO eerie
(I live right across the river from Manhattan). I pinched myself.
It took me a looong time to admit to myself I wasn't dreaming.
The shock lasted for days, depression for weeks.

I had to spend a lot of time helping my sister through her own
trauma from this event.

My sister, a psychotherapist was working in an office in Jersey City, her and
her colleague could see the towers from their office window. My sister told me,
"We both got down on our knees without a word and started praying, we watched and prayed".

For days after, she had clients with severe post traumatic stress. The worst case, she had, was a woman who saw ten Arabic men on a a Jersey City corner on September 10 chanting, 9-1-1, 9-1-1, and shouting hurray! hurray! and holding up two-finger victory signs. This was the day before!! It took the witness years to get over the guilt of "I should have said something to someone". While the towers going down saddened and shocked me, this info sickened me. I know now that the mosque where the event was planned was in Jersey City.

I'm Arabic myself, although with a Christian background. The Arabic language is like sweet music to my heart. I felt betrayed in a way I can't describe.

[Heart]

I was heading into my office in Brooklyn, where we can see the towers from our hall windows, when a colleague met me at the door and said -- there's been an accident -- a plane has hit the world trade center. I knew instantly that it was not an accident, (the WTC had been targeted before). I called my son's dad immediately to determine he was safe at school, then started calling others. We watched things unfold on TV, our computers, and out the window. When I saw Tower 1 collapse, I ran to retrieve my kid and head home to try and contact family and friends. It was a terrifying and disorienting day. The city was silent - no planes, trains or cars. Even in Brooklyn, the air was thick with paper and ash and the smell was like no other. I was totally numb.

I lost 3 people I knew that day including the father of my son's best friend. The firehouse in my neighborhood lost 11 firefighters.

It feels insignificant to say that I remember and mourn. We are still recovering from the trauma. Sometimes I wonder if we ever will, and if some of the horrors I see happening around me are a result of collective trauma.

Heart (broken)

[Lillie]

I had just arrived at work and my ex called me..I thought it was all bs..Im a new yorker born and raised..and all I kept saying was..do you know how tall those towers are ? a plane can not miss that!..I thought it was a mistake..until my boss who knew my sister worked in the south tower on the 83rd floor, stood in my door with a look of horror on her face..I hung up the phone and she offered to drive me home..I tried frantically to call my sister..but all it told me was..'all lines are busy"...as soon as I got home..I turned on the tv..and saw the 2nd plane hit..I then knew it wasnt a mistake..my dad called me and asked if I heard from jackie (my sister) of course I didn't...my kids had not left for school yet..and I stared at my son..I knew when he was 18 he would be fighting in a war because of this event..I was numb...it took 2 days to get the news that my sister who took the express bus from Staten Island to NY never made it to work that day because her bus got a flat tire....

it changed so many lives that day..my son has done 2 tours in Iraq..and he is not the same man...his life was changed forever that day.....