1BBEB93A-C4B6-B387-BBC9-AF1B752C6C5E 1.02.28

Friday, September 11, 2009

What do you remember for 9-11

I know I'll never forget.  Setting here remembering, saying some prayers, I have tears in my eyes and I'm sad.

I had worked the night before and had gotten off at 4am.  The drive home was an hour.  I had decided to go to bed right way so I could go in early to do some shopping.  After the coming night I had 3 days off and didn't want to go back to the city.

About noon the alarm went off.  No music.  There's an open mike.  I think how dumb of someone not turning the correct button or whatever they do.  A couple of minutes go by, I can't make out what is being said.  Then I hear "All planes that are in the air are being told to land in Canada."

What?  This must be a mistake.  Its a joke.  Then they go on telling how some flight have been in the air for awhile and I forget the rest.  I'm racing out the bedroom to the living room to turn on the TV.  Someone finally had set off a nuclear bomb was my thought.  I'm trying to reach family as the TV comes on and they are showing the planes and the towers.  I think I'm watching a movie, I change the channel and its the same thing.  It doesn't want to set in.  I keep playing over in my mind that planes are landing in Canada.

After getting in touch with family, I watch TV until I get another call and its work.  At the time I worked at the Winchester Medical Center's ER as a secretary. More like a gopher for the doctors, but a good job.  They wanted us in.  With the plane going into the Pentagon they didn't know what to expect.  Winchester, Va is about 2 hours from DC and about 90 mins from Dulles International Airport.  They had put us on alert.

Before leaving for work I had been trying to get a hold of a friend of mine.  At the time he worked for the World Bank in downtown DC.  Before the lines went completely down, I had word that he was fine and had gotten home.  But I actually think that was the next day when I got word.

It was a long night.  No patients.  No one looking for drugs, no one looking for an excuse off work.  No accidents, no one sick.  It was just us employees watching the TV.  When they let us go home, it was eerie, no one on the road.

Then later, while the planes were still grounded, the silence.  The quiet of the sky.

Prayers are still needed.

I won't watch any of the specials.  Maybe in years to come I will.

What are your memories?

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