I woke up this morning thinking about this morning 13 years ago. I got Kaylee up for school and Alora ready for Chance to take to a friend's house. Her daughter was very close in age to Alora and she had a 2nd grader in Kaylee's class. We would trade off watching the babies and going into volunteer in the 2nd grade classroom. I drove Kaylee to school and stayed to help in her 2nd grade classroom. Chance called while I was busy helping with papers...he had locked his keys in his car and he needed me to bring him mine so he could go to work. I dropped off the keys and then headed back to school. I had the radio on and it wasn't the usual South Florida radio anchors...it was the Today Show...on my radio? They were talking about a plane hitting the World Trade Center in New York. At the time they thought it was a small, private plane. While they were on the air, a second plane hit another World Trade Center...another small plane?
I went back to the classroom and told Mr. Livingston that two planes had crashed into buildings in New York. We speculated whether there was an issue with Air Traffic Control. How could two airplanes crash into buildings in New York? I finished up my helper duties and went to my friends house to retrieve Alora. The Today Show was still on my radio, but they had more information...not small planes, commercial aircraft.
When I got to my friends house I told her what I had been hearing. We turned on the tv and couldn't believe our eyes. Our 16 month olds played with toys as we watched thick smoke pouring out of two buildings in New York. I watched in horror as the two impossibly tall buildings crumbling like a pile of sticks. All I could say was, "The firefighters would have parked their trucks right there! They would have been right next to those buildings!" My parents were firefighters...I knew firefighters didn't park blocks away and walk in..they park right next to the burning building.
Then another plane...this time the Pentagon. All morning I kept in touch with Chance by phone. A fourth plane was missing. It would finally be found...a smoking hole in the Pennsylvania countryside.
My friend and I debated all morning, should we go to school and pick up our girls? They only had a half-day. Should we wait until the normal half-day pick up time? We decided to wait. As parents stood by the fence waiting dismissal, a dad made a comment that took my breath away, "People don't realize it, yet, but we are at war."
In the following weeks and months, as we learned how close we had been to the terrorists of that day. Several of them lived in an apartment complex across the street from the Target I frequented with my mother-in-law. South Florida had already held the spotlight for most of the past year with our hanging chads. Now this.
As you go about your day today, remember back to that morning 13 years ago. Reflect on where you were, what you saw, what you felt. And then remember, today is not "just" another September morning. It is 9/11.
