Remembering

[Cooker]

I don’t know how appropriate this thread is but I felt the need to post. When the alarm went off this morning I fumbled for the TV remote and turned on the news. I was quickly reminded that this is an anniversary that I will never forget, not where I was, what I was doing or how I felt. The utter disbelief of the moment still haunts me. It was the first day in a long, long time that I could remember tears rolling down my cheeks. I sat in silence with my co-workers, there was nothing said. The emptiness was overpowering.

When I arrived home my wife greeted me in the kitchen, we embraced and the tears started all over again. We ate dinner in an almost dead silence that was broken by the phone call that my niece had just given birth to a healthy baby boy. The renewal of life was apparent and a message we both needed so badly was delivered. By chance? Who knows?

The normal emotions ran their course as the months past by. Sorrow turned to fear and fear turned to anger which settled into compassion for the spouses, children, bothers, sisters, mothers and father, friends and neighbors who had lost the ones they loved.

Six years later spouses, children, bothers, sisters, mothers and father, friends and neighbors are mourning the loss of men and women who have lost life and limb in the current war. I say current because no matter how I wish for it I do not believe this will be the last.

Thanks to all of you who have made my life richer. This is a sad day but one little boy will celebrate his 6th birthday with cake and candles in freedom. And that is something I can not put a price tag on.

 

[Karlynn]

Wonderful Cooker - much needed reminders - lest we forget.

 

[WayneGM]

Ditto That. Thanks, Cooker.

 

[Nancy]

I'll never forget, that's for sure. We can never become complacent. We have a wonderful country and have to keep it safe.

May God Bless all our military,of all branches, our police and our firefighters whose sacrifice is great, and whose love for our country and its people is even greater.

 

[Phyllis]

Thanks, Cooker. None of us will ever forget and all of us are thankful for the wonderful freedom we all have thanks to our men and women in uniform. God Bless them all.

 

[Bina]

Cooker, your post is VERY appropriate.....some people need to be reminded of what to be thankful for.
In this case it is life itself.

Thanks for your heartfelt thoughts.

 

[Lynlw]

Thank you Cooker, you said things beautifully.Lyn

 

[Ross]

I'll never forget so long as I have a mind. I was in another forum when someone mentioned an airliner had just struck the North Tower. I ran to the TV and flipped on CNN just in time to watch the second plane hit the South Tower. Then hearing that the B-52's had left their base and George Bush was on his way to the underground bunker, thought sure we were about to see WW 3. Nope, I'll never forget.

 

[Granbonny]

I will never forget..my Hubby was due to have a large skin cancer removed from the top of his nose ( due to his many years flying)..Ultra-rays coming thru windshield?).....My children had taken the day off to be with us.....I was in bedroom packing an over-night bag..I saw it..same time neighbor knocked on door..To wish him well. they sat down and watched it...and I was a nervous wreck..telling him..we had to leave. when we arrived..the staff was busy coming in/out to see news on T.V..We sat in family waiting room and could see across the street. many cars lined up to give blood. (local Blood Bank)..When they were finished with Hubby..doctor said, he was leaving the wound open..for a Plastic surgeon to close it later. they bandaged it and we came home....He went to bed and I noticed a few hours later..(middle of the night) he was bleeding profusely. .I had him up and back before they opened the front door. Knocking at back door..they took him in and changed the bandage..he was O.K. I think.... bluured days that followed until we got him stitched up at plastic surgeon.. I know nothing like what happened that day..Just know, I had to take care of Hubby..I kinda blamed the surgeon /staff..I know we were all upset......it was also around the time my Mama was having health problems. I begged her not to watch T.V...but I am sure she watched..she passed 6 weeks later...I heard that many Americans had health problems after 9/11........Today, we went to town..All places had the American flag lower to half.mast..God Bless America..bonnie

 

[Marguerite53]

Thanks, Cooker. That was a perfect remembrance.

My children were in 9th, 11th and fifth day of freshman college when it happened. We were on the phone with our oldest...and we sent the other 2 to school that day. My husband and I remembering that our lives were similarly shaped by a one day tragic event....the assassination of JFK. I was in 5th grade, he in 6th. We so clearly remember that day. Our children wished to be with their friends and their teachers. It was momentous, heart-wrenching, terrifying. In many ways, I still cannot fathom the extent of it. It is mind and heart numbing.

I don't know if we've made any progress as a global nation. Our war will soon be with the planet if we don't change our ways. I wonder, sometimes, how pompous we can actually be to think that cultural or political or religious might have any bearing as our fragile earth, our collective home, is plundered and endlessly aggravated.

God Bless America. Absolutely. And someday, soon....bring our children home safe and sound.

Marguerite

 

[hensylee]

we all remember what we were doing, don't we? I was watching. Today I mourn all those who lost their lives. And our boys and girls - like Timmy Padgett who is the uncle of my great grandchildren but he was killed this year in action. He left a part of himself, like Cooker says, in the life of his daughter who has a life to live in freedom. God bless us, every one.

 

[ruth]

Very well put Cooker.

I sat this morning reading a timeline of the events of that morning reflecting as I'm sure we all do on where we were and how we felt. Today was grey, more in tune with my mood, not like that fabulous blue sky 6 years ago today. I remember driving by Dulles airport at about the time the plane that would later strike the Pentagon took off. All that was on the radio that day was whether Michael Jordan would come out of retirement to join the Wizards. I mean, nothing newsworthy was on the radio as I drove into work. I remember watching the events of that morning unfold with my co-workers on the huge teleconference screen until my building was evacuated (too close to other federal buildings here in DC). I remember how panicked my husband was that he couldn't reach me by cellphone and how I'd been so engrossed in what I saw on TV that I'd stupidly forgotten to call him. Oh, and then the 6 hour commute home (should have been 35 minutes) as DC traffic was completely snarled and the schools let out early but I, like most parents, was stuck in traffic glued to the radio with everyone else......

I wish for you all Peace, and may you be written into the book of life for another year. Happy New Year all.....

Ruth

 

[maka]

As a New Yorker who used to look at the Towers in the horizon every day while crossing the bridge on my way to work I assure you that I?ll never forget. I?ll never forget the silence of the city for days afterwards,,,,,New York silent....the city that never sleeps...silent.
Nor I?ll forget the friend who lost her brother, nor the shock, the smoke and finally the emptiness in a place where just 2 days before I was with a friend, a place full of life, and 2 days later people jumping to their death in a crispy, sunny, beautiful day. No, I?ll never forget