In Remembrance of 9/11

They say everyone knows where they were and what they were doing the day JFK was shot.

Well, for my generation, it will be 9/11.

I'll never forget that morning. It was a non-school day, and the kids and I were all at home. We'd seen Hubby off to work and I decided to make pancakes. It was going to be a good day.

I hadn't been on the computer yet, and I don't turn the TV on during the day, so the kids and I were getting dressed when the phone rang. It was Hubby, at work, and he told me to turn the TV on. "A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center" he said.

I was horrified. What a terrible accident. I turned on Fox News and there it was, one of the Twin Towers, with a big cloud of smoke and debris around it.

"How could this have happened?" I thought. Airplanes have such specific flight routes. And to crash right into a building?

I was mesmerized by the TV reports coming in. And then it happened. The second plane hit the other tower, and I saw it on TV. I screamed and sat down on the coffee table in shock, and my kids came running, asking me what was wrong.

How could I even explain to them what I was just realizing? One plane into the World Trade Center was an accident--TWO planes was clearly intentional. Who would do such a thing? Little did I know how my horror would grow, as later on both towers collapsed, one after the other.

I can't put into words my feelings that day. I was numb from shock, beside myself with grief for New York City, and angry--angry that these terrorists would dare come into MY country and think they could commit such an act of Genocide.

Now, five years later, I remember my feelings on that day. I remember talking to people who knew people who perished on the planes. I remember the horror of hearing about the Pentagon, and Flight 93.

I've told my children, in limited terms, about that day. Although they were very young, I want them to remember. The greatest disservice we could do to all the victims of 9/11, would be to forget.

I know I'll never forget.