Community Chat

[GlacierChick]

So many of us have personal stories related to that horrible day. I was 4 days away from getting married in CO. My soon-to-be BIL was in the Navy and worked in the area of the Pentagon that was hit. Had he not been on his way to CO in preparation for the wedding, he would have been at work. My SIL was in NYC for business and had to fight her way out of the chaos to get home to CT. We debated about whether or not to cancel the wedding, but decided to go ahead with it. All of my family members from CT got into their vehicles and drove across the country to be with us since all flights had been cancelled.

A friend of ours lost his friend who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald in the WTC. He went to console and see if he could help his friend's widow in the aftermath of what happened and he ended up marrying her a few years later. Unfortunately, their union did not last, but there are so many stories of triumph that come out of tragedy.

[Mama Mia]

Thank you for sharing your personal stories. I will never forget that day either.

mm

[MickD]

Wow...what a heart-wrenching account. Thank you for sharing.

[foundinlv]

When the planes were grounded it was really silent for the first time in Las Vegas. We had been used to seeing planes fly in nonstop everyday for years and years from domestic flights and international. The silence was eery and frightening and soon afterwards the layoffs began....thousands stunned, out of work and feeling like the world had come to an end.

Here's an interesting article.

http://www.answers.com/Q/How_long_were_planes_grounded_after_911

[moonstone dunes]

Thank you to all sharing your stories. I remember we were all looking for news and answers and the next morning 9/12 watching a NYC local morning TV program from NY then, I can't recall the hosts, but women were phoning in live asking for anyone who had seen their husbands (or other family members) to please please call them or contact the TV station. Many of their husbands or brothers, fathers worked at Cantor Fitzgerald or another office in one of the towers. It was truly heart-breaking. They described their husbands, what they were wearing, height, hair color etc. So very sad.

[puglet1]

Moonstone, in the weeks that followed, it was a common sight to see people standing on well-traveled street corners or areas of Manhattan (such as Union Square at 14th Street), holding up pictures of their missing loved ones, asking if anyone had seen them. Blocks of wall-to-wall pictures also sprang up around the city with pictures of the missing, with phone numbers to contact. I remember going to Union Square and looking at all these pictures. I was so overwhelmed that I broke down right in the middle of the square. You couldn't help but feel the pain that the families and friends of these people were going through.

[Preds]

Blessings to you all. These stories just bring on the tears, sadness, and the joy that ya'll are safe. Thank you for sharing.

[violann]

I was working in a very difficult school setting, with a harsh, unfeeling administrator, and when I came into the school, at about 10:30, one of the brand new teachers, who shared office space with me, was near hysteria. She had just left a job at the WTC, and a woman who had been a family friend had been announced as missing. I covered her lunch duty, knowing that she'd get the business if she wasn't there. A lot of North Jersey had been set ready for the trains to bring out victims, and the eerie thing was that there were none. Many mountainous sections of NJ could view the lights on the tops of the towers, and the darkness where there should have been light was eerie too. A week and a half afterthe buildings fell, my mom fell and broke her hip, and my whole life sort of fell apart. I sometimes think of all the people who lost loved ones in NY that day, never knowing exactly what happened in the last moments of the lives of those whom they loved.

[Elstongunn]

Powerful and gripping accounts and experiences of that day. Thank you all for sharing.

[Poodlepet2]

Thank you for sharing: I hope more people share their memories. A newscaster was talking about that children who were in kindergarten then are now in their first year of college. Of course, we parents had to protect them, and shelter them, but they need to know now how this event changed our lives, and theirs. I really believe that when it comes to history, first person accounts are invaluable: it's not dry facts and statistics, but a powerful reminder that people suffered. Poodlepet