This month, I remember.
I remember the horror of those who suffered unimaginable tragedies ten years ago this month. My prayers are with survivors and the family members of the lost.
9/11 didn't happen to me, not directly. But it affected all Americans to one degree or another. It even affected my young son.
My then four-year-old drew the picture above on September 14, 2001. Part of me feels regret that he reproduced the terror with such accuracy. The other part accepts that I parented the best I could at the time. Some people immediately understood that 9/11 was confined to national landmarks. Others felt unsafe regardless of where they lived. Count me in the latter group. I watched the televison in case we needed to evacuate, and though I tried to keep my children occupied, they clung to me as events unfolded. Not in fear, but in sympathy for my grief and shock.
To this day, my son remembers three things about September 11th: the fiery buildings, playing with his matchbox cars on the coffee table...and that Mommy cried.
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How about you, readers? Where were you on September 11th, 2001? How did you hear the news, and how did you react? Did you hide your reactions from your children? I value your input.
7 comments:
Gwen, I remember that day all too well. Our daughter was in fifth grade. We live in California, so she was getting ready for school when the news broke. For some reason, we turned on the TV that morning, something I don't remember doing in all her years of school, perhaps to check the weather forecast. I can't really remember.
What I do remember is seeing the image of the Pentagon and the message that this was a terrorist attack. I began sobbing. Even though my daughter was there, I couldn't hold myself together. We'd been attacked. As I watched in horror and disbelief, the broadcast switched to the images of the Twin Towers. I was so emotionally overwrought I had a hard time explaining what was happening to my daughter. She'd never seen me react to the news that way.
I called my husband, who is a teacher. I didn't care if I interrupted his class or not. He had to know what had happened. He did. His advice was to go about life as normal and take our daughter to school. Hard as it was, I did just that. And then I returned home and spent the better part of the next two days glued to the screen as I struggled to come to grips with what had taken place.
Keli, I'm so glad to know that I'm not the only mom who just let the tears flow. Thanks for this comment.
You must be somewhere other than the EST. I rounded the corner of our kitchen to catch the weather, saw the first building on fire, and watched in shock as, live, the second plane plunged into the second building at 9:03. I honestly thought I was seeing pictures of a new action flick. The horror was too unreal to believe, it seemed.
I will never forget. Never.
God bless America, and heroes who continue to make her strong.
I was home with my little ones watching the "Today" show, and it was so surreal to watch Katie Couric's surprise as the images started happening. And such a shock for for me. And when the second one happened, and the third attempt...I truly began to fear that it might be the end. It was such a strange sense of a de-grounding. My solace is that my faith-sharing group met later that day, so I was able to sit with my faith sisters and process what had happened. There was a mix of reactions tension even here was high. Things did change for those of us who had never really confronted war before. The world turned upside-down. Like Keli, I called my husband too. I think that's a pretty natural reaction. Thanks for the reflections, Gwen. :)
I had spent the morning with some friends at church. We all left happy, talking. Got in the car to head to my part-time teaching job at the local Christian school where my daughter was a first grader. Turned on the radio. Couldn't believe my ears. Got to the school. The younger kids were together in one inside room, playing, mostly unaware. I hugged my baby, reluctant to leave her...but I had responsibilities, even on such a day. I found my high school students together in another classroom with the rest of the staff, a TV set to the coverage. My first images came about 10:30. There are no words to explain that moment, when those first impressions became visual fact.
We were later told the plane that crashed in PA likely went right over the school. How innocent and unaware we were.
The school is near an Air Force Reserve Base. A couple of days later, a C130 plane went over unusually low. Very loud, very close. My toughest, coolest student, in true panic, dove under a desk, certain it was happening again.
Never forgotten.
Roxane, yes. For the first time in my life, I felt a vulnerability that many people over the world feel all the time, unfortunately. It was jarring. It changed me.
The next night, our church gathered, lit candles, prayed, and cried. Yes, the faith community played a big role in my experience as well, thank God.
Have a blessed weekend.
Rachel, it's good to hear from another teacher. I too was teaching then, but only part-time on Wed-Fri, so I was able to be home with my babies that day.
I work at an elementary school, and some teachers showed bits and pieces of the coverage in the older grades. But I couldn't blame them; they acted out of their best judgment at the time. They felt they needed to be aware in case the attacks were not limited to the east coast.
Many parents came to school to collect their kids that day. I wasn't even sure we'd have school the next day, but we did. Amazingly, we had one parent call the school and inform us that she wanted her daughter to know NOTHING about the attacks: that we weren't to talk about it or allow other children to talk about it in her presence. Needless to say, she couldn't make it through the day without finding out what happened. What are teachers to do, demand silence at recess, on the bus, and in the lunchroom? Require that no students even mention the event anywhere in school?
Other than that unrealistic expectation, the parents were great and allowed us to respond to the events as we felt was best. We didn't focus on the tragedies, but the children wanted to talk about it, even with me, the music teacher. I spent one whole music class talking with one group. They just needed to express their feelings and fears and hear an adult respond.
I have a storage closet in my music room, and used it to pray and cry a lot that day between classes.
God bless you, Rachel.
Gwen, I played flute for a memorial service for a soldier killed at the Pentagon. It broke my heart to see all those touched by this one life, and imagine those grieving multiplied by all those killed and wounded.
The day it happened our kids were in kindergarten and third grade. We talked about it, and they watched the images. My husband worked in Washington but he was able to call to say he was all right. I cried also.
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