@HonestLife
I too am sorry you have had such battles and hope that the passage of time has allowed you some relief and peace.
I was at work when this happened. A very small office, no tv, no radio. We were working away and our 'home office' and president called to let us know that someone's plane hit a building in NYC. We all just shook our heads and wondered who couldn't see a building jutting up out of the sky, assumed it was very small plane and minimal damage, and went about our work. We had no idea.
I worked half days at the time, as I had a child in half day preschool. I left at my usual time to pick him up (around 11 am), and got in the car. As it started, the radio was on and I heard " blah blah blah" just words that I wasn't listening too. I was wanting some music so started hitting stations, and each button, I heard "blah blah blah" again, none of the words registering.
After the third or fourth station, my mind locked in, and in the two minute drive from my office to the preschool, I was astounded at what I was hearing.
I had a cell phone, and knew that my mom was home alone, would have had the news on all morning, and be freaking out, so I tried to call her. Couldn't get a signal. I was in the school parking lot with other parents who were wandering around trying to find a spot to get a cell signal too. Several of my son's classmates had fire fighter fathers, and one of them said to me, "you won't get a signal right now". They had been following from the beginning.
I picked up my son, none of the staff was talking about the happenings in front of the kids (school went up to 6th grade) but teachers were taking turns going to a television unavailable to the kids, and watching the news.
On the way home, I tried to get my brother on the phone. He flies for business, especially at that time, nearly every week and I had no idea where in the country (or sometimes world) he was at, or if he might have been in the air that morning on a commercial plane. I knew my mom would be freaking out about his whereabouts as well.
Once on the road, I got a signal enough to reach my mom. We eventually reached my brother and he was, gratefully, not traveling that day. We went straight home, and I watched with my 5 year old, as the news repeated and continued coverage till late afternoon.
September 11 happened to be the birthday (5th) of my best friend's son. We were to go to his party that afternoon, and she decided to continue with the plans. I've always felt sorry for that kid every birthday since, as his special day is overshadowed with such tragedy.
I know many people who my son went to school with, and they never told or discussed much about the day, or ever let them watch news coverage of it, till they were of high school age. I found that to be odd. Although every child is different, and some can handle things of a disturbing nature better than others, I was determined my son would know of this and see it on a limited basis. I knew that life would never be the same in America. I knew that he needed to understand at some point, terror, school lock down drills, stranger danger beyond what we had been taught, and used the events to begin the dialogue.
It was our Pearl Harbor. It was my Kennedy assination that happened when I was just a toddler and have no memory of. I pray it is the only thing like it that I have to recall the explicit details of where I was, what I was doing, when horrible tragedy struck a nation, and a world.
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