Remembering Sept. 11, 2001

Remember where you were on September 11, 2001?

I do! I was sitting at my desk, in a downtown Detroit high-rise office building, working on tally sheets for my boss. I had the radio on, unusual for me because most the time I couldn’t get a station to come in clear inside the building, but this day I found one. Just around 10am the radio DJ came on with breaking news of a plane crashing into the North Tower—my first thought was ‘scary’ because I was in a building that was 40 stories tall!

At the time, no one knew it was due to terrorists, but we found out shortly after when a second plane hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center. As soon as that happened, I just wanted to leave, but I knew I had to stay calm and find the nearest TV. I ran down to our Broadcast Studio (I work in Advertising) and their manager already had the newscast with the reports going on. After that…it was like rolling thunder…and then a plane hit the Pentagon and a final one went down in a field in Pennsylvania.

Within an hour of all this happening in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania; our office building managers decided it was better for us to close and get out of the city; to our safe home. A wave of nauseous relief came over me, as I knew I wanted to be as far away from my work as possible, yet sick with the knowledge that we were under attack.

Even more frightening was the fact that I had to walk about five blocks to the parking structure where my car was parked. Waking out of the building was like something out of the movies; people came spilling out of the surrounding building and went scattering towards their own safe haven and far from the concrete sweatboxes. The drive home was white knuckled and in slow motion. Once home, I just remember being glued to the horrors of the newscast for the remaining days and nights, for the next few weeks and months that passed.

Today is Remembrance Day—Seven Years have passed. I only bring this up because as time moves along and the pain eases, the memories of these types of events never leave my mind. Because of this, I feel that I need to give myself a little pinch to stop and give thanks for the life I have, the life around me, and to remember the ones that were lost to us ALL.

2, 975 hero’s were burgeon wings that day, I might not know their names, but I think of them with admiration and new hope for life in the future. Just a small count so I will remember how many were lost to us this day: 2,604 from North and South World Trade Towers, plus the 24 remains that were never found among the ashes; 341 FDNY firefighters and 2 FDNY paramedics; 37 Port Authorities, 23 Police officers, 1 K-9 dog named Sirius, and the 8 Private EMTS that all became angels on September 11, 2001.

Do you remember now!

As I struggle with the everyday natural (and unnatural) happening around my life, I sometimes have to remember to stop and smell the roses. Or in this case, the smell of the falls crisp air that is creeping in.

Peace to you and for us.

© Copyright 2008 Kathryn Frank (aka Kathryn Katz) (UN: KKatz/KFrank at Writing.Com). All rights reserved. Kathryn Frank has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.