Remembering 9/11

My morning began hurriedly. I rushed to get myself, Garrett (then 4 y.o.) and Payton (then 11 months) ready to go to a weekly bible study that I attended. We got there just in time....right at 9:00 a.m. I took the Garrett to his class and dropped Payton off in the nursery. I rushed back downstairs as not to miss any of the worship songs we sang to start the morning off. Shortly there after we were dismissed to our classes. As we settled in our teacher took prayer requests, as usual, and then began to pray. Just after she began we heard the door to our classroom slowly open. This was quite odd as no one would usually interrupt a prayer. As we all peeked to see who it was, she spoke in an extremely soft voice and asked us all to come back out into the worship room. We could not possibly imagine what was going on. This was highly unusual. All 75+ women came back to the room we'd left only minutes before. We took our seats and waited in silence. Then, the bible study leader appeared before with a most solemn look on her face. She explained that an airplane had just hit one of the World Trade Center towers. We all gasped, knowing it had to be a terrible accident. We began to pray to the Lord for those in the plane as well in the tower. Before we could even be dismissed to return to our classes, we were told that another plane had crashed into the other tower. Cold chills just shot right through me (exactly as they are right now as I'm typing this). Something was terribly, terribly wrong. What was happening? We were all dismissed at that time to collect our children and return home. I quickly went to get Garrett and then went to straight to the nursery and scooped up Payton.

During the ten minute drive back home, so many thoughts were racing through my mind. I just couldn't imagine such a thing happening on purpose. There was little said about it on the radio, it was too soon. No one knew what had really happened, much less explain it. I ran into the house and immediately turned on the TV. There it was, the first pictures I'd seen of the towers...smoke pouring from both. I knew the chances of me knowing someone in the planes or the towers was highly unlikely, but still, I cried. Cried for the loss of lives, for the children who wouldn't see their mommy or daddy that night.

I needed to talk to my husband. Normally he worked just five minutes from our house and would have come home on such a horrific day. But, today that wouldn't happen. He was two hours away in Pittsburgh, PA at a job interview. I had no way of reaching him. I just wanted to hear his voice and know for certain that he was okay.

Like most of America I sat glued to the TV for the rest of the day. I just wanted a reasonable explanation for what had occurred. We all got that explanation but it was far from reasonable. I'll forever remember that day. I'll remember where I was, how I felt, the tears I shed. I'll also remember those who lost their lives that day...in NY, DC and PA. I'll remember their families, who's lives were forever changed. I can only pray that now, five years later, they have some sort of peace. I pray that the Lord has brought joy into their lives again. I shall never forget that all of those who met the Lord that day are heroes. God bless.