where were you last year on this day?????

[sylviayasgur]

hi all!
normally i wouldn't start a thread like this, but i just can't get this out of my head...
originally, joey's surgery was scheduled for 9/12/01. we were downtown in nyc for pre-op on sept. 11th.
joey had just had a cath several days before and had been in afib. because the surgery was so near, i was administering lovenox shots to him (can you imagine, me? needle phobic?) needless to say, the poor guy was black and blue!!!
the day before the pre-op joey started bleeding from the incision in his groin (while at the office). he was instructed to stay in bed and off his feet. when we went into nyc, we did not count on him having to be on his feet all day long!!!

we parked our car down the street from dr. stelzer's office and the parking attendant told us that a plane had just hit the wtc. walking out of the lot, it was a glorious day, blue, clear skies, and joey immediately said "terrorism".
by the time we got up to the dr's office the second plane had hit.
those of you who have been to stelzer's office know that he has this huge bay window that looked out onto the twin towers, so we had an amazingly clear view.
joey's office pre-op was interrupted every 5 minutes by screams from the office, as the buildings came down.

there were no doctors available to do the pre-op at the hospital across the street. the hospital was in preparation for any injured survivors. triage set up on sidewalks, bloodbanks also with lines out the doors and around the blocks.
we went back to stelzer's office and rescheduled surgery for the week later. neither joey, nor paul stelzer wanted to do the surgery the next day.

we spent the next 8 hours walking around the city. all restaurants/eateries were packed. we ended up sharing a booth with these 2 gals in a pub so we could sit and have lunch. there was no place to go, no one could get out of the city by car.
when we finally did get home that night, we hugged our kids and each other.
we had been so nervous about the next day's surgery that this incident neutralized our fears in a matter of seconds.
it made us realize how lucky we are for joey to be able to be saved and live his life afterwards.

this is what i remember of 9/11....my kids panicking at school as they watched the towers burn down, knowing we were downtown. it was so close to home, so many lost lives.......so terribly sad. i get goosebumps when i think of it.
just think, those of you who have little ones, they will be learning about this in history class when they get to high school.

then, today, i see a little clip on good morning america...young father died on 9/11, young mother died of breast cancer thereafter, grandmother is raising these two adorable boys. how lucky they are to have her and she them.

please all be well.
-sylvia

 

[Ross]

Well last year on this day, I was working my tail off in Rehab trying to get home from surgery. Now 2 years ago today, I was sitting here at the computer helping in the security forum when I got an instant message saying to go turn the T.V. on NOW. I went out and turned it on just in time to see the 2nd plane approach and hit the other tower. I stood there in disbelief then in tears. I couldn't comprehend how someone could have such reckless disregard for human life. I knew in an instant that it was terrorists. I had no question in my mind about that.

Sylvia, I can only imagine what it was like for the two of you to be that close. I stayed glued to the T.V. for the rest of the day and the things I saw will be inscribed on my mind forever. I have 2 friends within blocks of the incident and we couldn't get ahold of them. The internet services had been knocked out along with their phone services. Alot of us wondered all day if they were o.k.
We got our answer later that night. They were fine, but badly shaken up and very angry.

I won't forget and I don't think anyone else will that was old enough to grasp what happened that day. May they all rest in peace.

 

[bvdr]

Well 2 years ago today my mother was not well so I left on the early flight out of Pinehurst NC, connected in Charlotte and headed to Grand Rapids via a stop but no plane change in Pittsburg. We had come down rather fast into Pittsburg and we had already been hearing bits and pieces around the cabin from those who had received calls on their cell phones. I let those who had connections leave and then I decided that I would just stay on the plane. The captain came back and told me that there were terrorism incidents in the area and planes would not be flying for a while so I would need to deplane.

I got off and started getting more bits and pieces of what was going on and went to the nearest television to catch the news. The towers had not yet fallen, the pentagon had not yet been hit but we had learned that there was a plane in the Pittsburg area that was in trouble. It really takes alot to get me rattled but I was feeling pretty shaky.

I called my husband to let him know I was OK and started thinking about how I would either get to Grand Rapids or get back home. As soon as I got to the customer service desk I was notified that the airport was being evacuated and I had to leave.
I asked which way and headed in that direction. I stopped at the
hotel desk to get a room and ended up sharing one with a very nice lady who was also stranded. Everything was so quiet and orderly and people were oh so polite. While in line at the hotel desk the first of the towers fell and before we got upstairs the other also fell. By this time our cell phones had been fried and all calls had to be made from our room.

We spent hours glued to the television screen unbelieving what was happening. Everyone was trying to get home to be with loved ones. My husband drove up the next day to bring me home.

Sylvia, I just can't imagine how that was for you and Joey. So close and onlookers to the whole thing. A lady I used to golf with lost her son-in-law who was at the WTC for business that day. It was a very sad day for America and the world.

 

[LoraW30]

Two years ago today, I was at home getting ready for work. My sister called and told me to turn the tv on. I watched both towers fall while I was on the phone with my sister. When I went to work, I worked at the Dollar General Store at the time, people came in and stocked up on canned goods and water and told me about the cars backing up on the highway waiting for gas.

 

[RobThatsMe]

Hi,

Two years ago today I was working in Los Angeles. I was just getting my day started and was watching CNN when they announced that a small plane had hit one of the towers. WRONG!

As I watched the TV, I saw the second plane come in, and said to myself.."That sure was no small plane.. and for sure this was an organized thing going on". I immediately went to work, no one there had heard about it, so I told one person to go home and get a TV while all the rest of us listened on the radio.

It was so strange to be in LA and look up into the sky during the week and not see any planes flying overhead. I was on one of the first planes out when the LAX airport openned. A lady sitting behind me brought an American Flag on board and asked the flight attendant to hang it on the pilots door for all to see! The whole plane cheered. The flight across our great country was a very emotional journey that day.

Rob

 

[pegne]

9-11-2001

9-11-2001

On this day two years ago I was up early cleaning as I always do on Tues. My husband called from work and said that a plane went into the WTC. I turned on the tv just as the second plane went into the tower. I called my sister at work and as I was telling her about this horrible incident it came across that the plane went into the pentagon. I told her "we are under attack." as I stood there in disbelief I realized that my world, as I knew it, would never be the same. Our country would never be the same. Little did I know that we would all come together to show what this great country means to all of us.

 

[sylviayasgur]

thanks ross!!!

thanks ross!!!

as i walked in the door just now, i occurred to me that i might have written last year in stead of two years ago....
glad to see everyone got the idea though...

what was it joey was just saying to me yesterday? we'll never forget where we were, just like when kennedy was shot.

 

[Johnny Stephens]

Out here on the west coast, it was already done when I turned the morning news on. Watched it sadly for a while, drove to work in a daze for an early meeting. Saw a Pepsi truck with a gigantic flag stuck on the roof - people waving flags on the overpasses on the interstate. Nobody went to the meeting, we just stood out in the lobby watching it on the news.

 

[Scottie]

Two years ago

Two years ago

Two yrs ago ..it was nearly 3pm in the afternoon ...my husband and myself were returning from a visit to my consultant when we were told I needed surgery...as we came across some of the most wonderful scenery Scotland has on a bright sunny afternoon ,a news flash came across the radio and told us of the terrible happenings across the Ocean.
We drove home in horrified silence....and switched the TV on ...there we sat in disbelief watching the awful events.
Iwas lucky my surgery meant I had got a second chance (,nearly a year to the day later.)..so many that terrible day were denied such a thing.
We will never forget.
Scottie

 

[wlaldridge]

Well Syl I have tried to ignore responding to this thread, but just can't I am haunted by this thing. Another DEFINING MOMENT for this generation along with Pearl Harbor, death of Roosevelt and Kennedy and King, Explosion of Challenger. People remember where they were and what they were doing for these just like the unexpected death of a parent, sibling, or spouse.

I was on the internet and read about a plane hitting WTC, being a pilot I mas mildly interested, but small planes and choppers clip buildings from time to time. A large plane would never in my wildest imagination get close to a structure like that. HA

A call from my oldest son told me to get the tv on and a call from my youngest with the 82nd Airborne at Ft. Bragg also put me on notice(they were already being "locked down" and preparing for what ever. Certainly, the deployment of the Rapid Deployment Force if need be. It was surreal, at times like watching a big budget Hollywood movie.

The haunting thing for me was the death yesterday of Edward Teller reminded me of his "contributions". He was the "Father of the Hydrogen Bomb". Now Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Bikini (2500 times the destructive force of the other two) are REALLY the DEFINING MOMENTS.

If these NUTS/fanatics gets access to one of these kinds of WMD nothing we have seen or experienced will seem like much at all. These defining moments should be wake-up calls to this world. We need to REALLY dedicate everything to cleaning up this stuff-especially all the untold stuff loose in the former USSR.

I don't really know any answers only that we ignore the wake up message at our own peril.

And, I don't intend to detract from the horror, pain, suffering and heroism of those affected by 9/11, how can we even now comprehend such an act, let alone get a grasp of something thousands of times more horrible.

All of it is beyond my simple mind, that I do know.

We can not Forget, but we can not afford to Ignore.

Sorry for the rant

 

[pegne]

Bill

Bill

Well said.

 

[Gnusgal]

This day two years ago... I was in class, second period. My students were looking in the library for prose/poetry pieces, otherwise I wouldn't have had any clue what was going on. The librarian had the news on in her office. She came out to me and said she'd watch the students, to just go in and watch the TV. I went in and was dumbfounded. At the time I had no real idea of what was happening. I didn't realize that it was a comercial plane, I thought it had to have been a small plane. It wasn't until much later that I got the whole story on the news that night. As a teacher I sometimes feel cut off from the "real" world. I have to say that I sure felt that way that day. We got many updates through our email, but only so much could be revealed. The principal came on the announcements to let us know what had happened, but was so vague about the details and a lot of the kids were terrified. But I didn't know what to tell them, because I knew almost as little as they did. That night my husband and I sat glued to the TV. We were like that every evening for the next several weeks.

It was a very powerful moment in my life that I will never forget. I now understand why my mother always points out the window of the classroom she was in when Kennedy was shot as we pass her old high school...

 

[MelissaM]

Two years ago I was just waking up to my radio alarm as usual. But something was amiss. The news was on when it shouldn't have been, and newscasters' voices held too much alarm. I immediately got up and turned on the television. I watched in horror as one tragic event after another unfolded. One plane, two planes, the Pentagon, a missing plane over Pennsylvania. . .people jumping, towers crashing. . .the horror of knowing so many lives were lost at once.

I could only stand in front of the TV with a steady stream of tears coming out of my eyes. It was awful.

Two days later, I boarded the first British Airways flight out of Phoenix bound for Ireland. Everyone from the flight attendants to the counter reps to the passengers was jittery. In the waiting area, passengers secretly eyed each other. . .wondering.

My hotel in Dublin was two blocks from the American Embassy, where flowers, cards, anguish, and heartache were stacked waist high. America and Ireland have such close ties. . . Some of the momentos left at the site were so bittersweet. A stuffed Mickey Mouse pinned to the fence with "I remember my trip to America and wanted you to have this" written in a child's scrawl.

Two years later the memories still linger.

 

[Nancy]

I was home watching things unfold on TV and talking off and on with my daughter who lived in Bellerose near Long Island at the time. Her husband works in Manhattan and I was very worried about his safety, so was she. He was on his way to work into NYC at the time the attack took place. My daughter got ahold of him on his cell phone, but he thought he would be OK and continued into the city. Shortly after, he turned around and left, good thing he didn't wait, he got out just before they closed all the bridges and tunnels. He and his passenger picked up a couple of fellows who were walking out of Manhattan on the bridge and took them out also.

We must never forget how easy this was for the terrorists.

 

[Mark Wagner]

I just copied this from my post too Les. I was in sleeping when my wife called me and said a plane had crashed into the trade center. Here is how the rest of my day went ... (sorry to repeat what I wrote on another post.) I tell you the truth, the first thing I did this morning was E. mail my daughter and told her I loved her. ....

2 years ago on this day, my daughter whom works for an agency in Washington DC, left her apartment three blocks from the Pentagon, went to the front of the Pentagon and caught a bus one hour before the plane crashed into the building. At the time I didn't know if she was in the building that morning. Their was no way for her to get a line out to me as everything was jammed. At 1:00 that afternoon, I was in contact with the chaplin handling defense family notification. At 3:00 I had to get out of the house, and I must have looked pretty ridiculous jogging along the road with tears running down my face. We were really beginning to think we lost her. It was so unlike her not to call. At around 5:00 that night we finally recieved an E. mail that she was okay. I was so relieved that I still had my daughter. That night as I lay in bed I was overwhelmed with guilt, because I was so relieved that my little girl was okay, but I pained for the families I knew would not get that call. I hope we as a nation never have to feel what we all felt that day. It was truly the worst day of my life. Two years later and it still hurts like hell.

Mark

 

[Granbonny]

The a.m. of 9-11

The a.m. of 9-11

I was in bedroom..packing for a trip to Gainesville, Ga. where my Hubby was to undergo a removal of a very large basel-cell cancer on his nose. Came from flying with Delta Airline for 37 years..sitting in cockpit.. from ultra-violet rays from glass in cock-pit. It was huge and our children had taken the day off. to be with me...He called me to come in and watch. closed doors and kept packing. Had to leave soon. While we waited during his surgery. Doctors and Nurses kept coming out to watch T.V. Looked out the window of local blood-bank..they were swamped with people coming to donate blood.Hubby came out with large bandage on nose. Brought him home and put him to bed. Next morning early..looked at him and bandage was soaked with blood. Called daughter..drove him back to doctor's office and banged on side door...to re-wrap him.. They did..but I felt like they, too, was not doing what they should have been doing. That started my this not feeling right. then Mom died a few weeks later. then I decided..Hey, something is not right with me. But, things happen for the best for me. That's when they found my aneurysm. All that stress just came out. Bonnie

 

[Mark Wagner]

This was forwarded too me from my wife. I thought you may want to read it ....

Subject: September 11th..{This is Awesome}

You say you will.


I was on the 110th floor in a smoke filled room with a man who called his
wife to say "Good-bye".

I held his fingers steady as he dialed. I gave him the peace to say, "Honey,
I am notgoing to make it, but it is OK... I am ready to go." I was with his
wifewhen he called as she fed breakfast to their children.I held her up as
she tried to understand his words and as she realized he really wasn't coming
home that night.

I was in the stairwell of the 23rd floor when a woman cried out to Me for
help, for the very first time in her life."I have been knocking on the door
of your heart for 50 years!" I said."Of course I will show you the way home -
only believe in Me now."

I was at the base of the building with the Priest ministering to the injured
and devastated souls.I took him home to tend to his Flock in Heaven. He heard
my voice and answered.

I was on all four of those planes, in every seat, with every prayer. I was
with the crew as they were overtaken.I was in the very hearts of the
believers there, comforting and assuring them that their faith has saved
them.

I... I was everywhere.

I was standing next to you when you heard the terrible news. Did you sense Me?

I want you to know that I saw every face.I knew every name - though not all
know Me.Some met Me for the first time on the 86th floor.Some sought Me with
their very last breath.Some couldn't hear Me calling to them through the
smoke and flames; "Come to Me... this way . take my hand." Some had never
heard my voice before. And a few chose, for the final time, to ignore
Me. But, I was there.

I did not place you in the Tower that day. You may not know why, but I do.
However, if you were there in that explosive moment in time, would you have
reached for Me?

September 11, 2001 was not the end of the journey for you.But someday your
journey will end.

And I will be there for you as well.Seek Me now while I may be found. Then,
at any moment, you know you are "ready to go"

...I will be in the stairwell of your final moments.

Love,
God