On that beautiful September morning in 2001, we were just getting ready to turn off the morning news program and start school. They announced that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I headed out to the kitchen for a drink, and Nate called, "Mom! Another plane just crashed into the other building!"
I knew we'd get no school done that day. We spent all day and night glued to the TV watching, trying to figure out what was happening and what this would mean for us as a nation. Two more planes crashed that day, one into the Pentagon, and one in a farm field in Shanksville, PA.
Just a year or two later we stopped to see the sight of Flight 93's crash. We were able to speak to the farmer who watched the plane crash into his field. There was a fence there then that people hung stuff on - photos of those killed on that flight, stuffed animals, badges from many, many first responder companies.
There was also a newspaper article from the local paper, that was in plastic page protectors. It was from the day off the crash or the next day, I don't remember, but what I do remember is reading that one of the items found on the ground was a Bible. The pages were singed and it was open. The only other thing on the ground was a smoking tire. Everything else was in the hole the plane made as it went nose first into the ground.
Fire fighters spoke of how they expected to see a debris field strewn all over the ground. There wasn't. The farmer told us that Todd Beamer's wife Lisa, told him he should come to the viewing sight every day and tell people his story so that they would know what happened, and not forget.
Now there is a big memorial on the site. We've not been there since that opened though, we've stopped a few other times.
Fourteen years is a long time, and two of my children were not alive when this horrific event happened. We tell our children our memories of that day, and our older children talk of it, too.
I'd love to hear your stories, your memories of that day.
Here is an interesting story about the story I was telling you about the Bible found in Shanksville.
5 comments:
I had flown back to Ecuador by myself two days earlier. Our daughter had flown back even earlier to begin school, but I stayed in Canada to get the older two settled in university. Tim stayed in Canada longer than I did for a conference. I was vacuuming the house after it sat empty all summer when my daughter (the one in Ecuador) called. She said, "Mom, something's happened, it's on the Ecuadorian news, but I'm not sure what it is." I brushed her aside saying, "well, you know how the media exaggerates things here." And I went back to vacuuming.
But I was disquieted and turned off the vacuum cleaner and went out to knock on my neighbour's door to see if she'd heard anything. Nope. We went up and turned on the television and there, a plane flew into the second tower in front of our eyes.
The vacuum cleaner sat in the living room for a couple of days while Ashley and I were glued to the television. I had earlier planned to come back on the 11th, but changed my ticket. I'm so glad I did. It was hard with Tim in Canada and me there, but we were so thankful.
It's a day I'll never forget.
I was off that day so I was about half asleep, and the radio was on. They started talking about how a "small plane" had hit a building in downtown NY. I was kinda dozing, then they sounded more urgent, so I got up and turned on the TV. I don't think I turned it off for the next few weeks! I remember sitting nearly frozen in fear on the couch, not sure what was going on, not sure what all this meant, and scared of what else could happen. Rumors were scaring me to death! And I could barely pray. We live kinda close to a major airport and it was just so quiet. But, you know what? I never had a nightmare about what was going on b/c when I would sleep, I felt like I was surrounded by a cloud, and I know it the love of God surrounding me, and it was peaceful.
I think part of the reason I never had nightmares, too, is b/c I refuse to look at the buildings if it looks like people are falling/jumping. Sometimes it's been hard to avoid, but I just don't look.
It was a scary, scary time, and I hope we never have to go through that again. I pray every day for country, and our protection.
Since we had no TV, our neighbor came to tell us what had happened. I remember sitting on the front porch steps with the children playing nearby, talking about what happened. The next several evenings we spent at our neighbor's watching the news reports. At the time we lived in Frederick, MD, about 1/2 hour from Camp David. Fully armed F-15s flew over our house as they circled Camp David. Initially we could see them as they flew, but as the weeks went on they flew higher and we could just hear them instead of seeing them. It was strange to not see or hear any other planes in the sky. My husband worked at Ft. Detrick and security there changed drastically. Two of my children also were not born at the time, another was just a 3 year old. The older 3 remember more of the events.
I've been thinking of 14 years ago all day. My mother had cataract surgery even though the doc considered canceling it. The nurses all had to do contingency things so put me in charge at the desk! LOL! While I waited for my mother's surgery. (I did happen to know one of the nurses so wasn't a total stranger).
I like your wreath; I think the burlap is a nice contrast to the color and looks like autumn but a plaid would be nice too.
We lived at Greystone Manor or Oregon Pike in Lancaster, then. I had placed a radio on the window and was in the yard watching Will, Nate and Grace play in the sandbox, and I was 7 months pregnant with Rosie. I heard it on the radio, and immediately called Don. Listened to the radio most of the day because we didn't have very good television reception and no cable there.
I remember going to a "Women Of Faith" Conference in Philly with my mom that February and hearing Lisa Beamer speak. I was so impressed by her faith.
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