Good morning.
Such a tender day for our nation. I shared some thoughts over on my Instagram post. I know each and every one of us holds a heavy heart today. God bless every one of our fallen heroes and the families that lost so much. Today we honor every single one of you.
I will never forget where I was. Getting ready to walk into my 5th grade classroom. Those sweet innocent faces. The television on in the teachers’ lounge and no one saying a word. What could you say? So painful. What followed were feelings of unity and grief that were palpable. Where were you when the world stopped turning?
So happy that you are instilling in the kiddos a love of country and respect for the flag as well as teaching them the history of 9/11.
Thank you, Sue. So much love for this country.
I was walking back from the bus stop after sending my two youngest off to school. It was a gorgeous day and I was thinking about how much I missed my mom. She had recently passed away. It was the one morning I didn’t have the TV on while I made lunches. My husband called me from work and said that a plane hit a building in New York. I put on the TV thinking it was an accident. It was unbelievable to watch! Thank you for your heartfelt post. You always seem to know the right thing to say.
Oh wow. Thank you for sharing that, Genny. I remember watching the TV and thinking the same thing. This can’t actually be happening. Appreciate your being here.
I was working as a dispatcher and for some odd reason I remember what I was wearing A green gingham button down shirt.
Gosh. It’s crazy the details and things we remember. Thank you for sharing. All so painful.
I was on a bus with my sports marketing class, headed toward downtown Chicago on a field trip. No one on the bus knew what had just happened in New York. Halfway there, the bus driver got a call from his dispatcher telling him the field trip was canceled, and we needed to get back to school asap. He was in disbelief because no field trip had ever been canceled enroute. Turns out, the Sears Tower was also seen as a target because it was the tallest building in the US. The parents of the students were frantic until we got back to school.
Oh wow. I can’t even imagine how those parents were feeling. Thank you for sharing, Bonnie. These stories make me feel so much more connected to all of you.
I was heading to my organic chemistry class. Getting there felt weird because things just felt eerie – the streets were empty for a supposed weekday.
Maureen | http://www.littlemisscasual.com
A walk to class you’ll never forget. Thank you for sharing, Maureen.
I was a sophomore in college and had an early chemistry class. We had no clue what had been going on while we were in class. On the campus bus to my next class people started talking about it. I remember getting to my next building and sitting by a girl trying to call into New York and all the lines were jammed. Then my university cancelled classes for the rest of the day. My roommates and I spent the rest of the day watching horrific footage on tv. I’ll never, ever forget that day.
My daughter was at UCSD, my husband left for work. The only morning I didn’t have the TV on, and he called with the terrible news. I’ll never remember the huge cloud of smoke and dust catching up with people running, and I’ll never ever forget those words, “Let’s roll”
My two kids had just woken up and we were going to have a fun day together when my husband called and told me to turn on the news. I felt numb and scared most of the day, trying to distract my kids so I could watch the TV. My son, who would turn 4 the next day, kept asking questions about what was going on and I kept trying to pull it together so he wouldn’t feel the stress I was giving off. Whew, what a sad sad day.
Jim and I were getting ready for work with the TV on and Kristen had just arrived a few weeks earlier as a freshman at the University of Portland. We were so worried about her being so far away. Shortly thereafter, we heard the tragic news that one of her teammates mother was on the plane that hit the Pentagon Building. We had all just sat together at a game the week before at Cal State Fullerton. It’s a day we will never forget, especially when you personally knew one of the victims 🇺🇸
My husband’s phone call woke me at 6:45am here in San Diego. I was confused why he would be calling so early as our first, 5-week old son lay in his bassinet beside me. He was on a business trip in Detroit, and was calling to tell me the terrible news. I immediately turned on the TV and watched in horror as the towers fell.
I remember what I was wearing, what my son was wearing, our bedding, the paint and strange texture of the walls in our bedroom. I also remember wondering what kind of a world we had brought our sweet baby into.
My husband and colleague had a rental car there in Detroit. They didn’t ask permission but simply got in the car and drove straight for 36 hours to get home. I’ve never been so grateful to see my husband walk through the door.
I’m not sure why, but this year the anniversary has hit me more than ever before. Maybe it’s age and because that same son recently turned 20…and thinking about all of those babies born without a parent. My heart still breaks for them.
I had just woken up and had the Today show on. A work colleague was staying with us and she was already getting ready for the day – we had a work retreat in DTLA. I was about 2-3 months pregnant and feeling like crap. We didn’t know what to do (pre texting etc) so we headed down town only to be sent home almost immediately. I had a miscarriage a few months later during the Christmas holidays (at 20 weeks). Reading about all the unborn babies who lost their Dad’s 20 years ago is very triggering for me today. I was 41 at the time so did not have children after that miscarriage.
I was teaching at an elementary school outside of Toronto. Even though we were in a different country, it felt close. We had friends on holiday at Disney and we spent a lot of time trying to figure out how they would get home. Seems like yesterday and a forever ago at the same time.
I had just gotten back from my sons bus stop and started an online class for a speeding ticket I had gotten ( my only one ever! ). My neighbor called and said “turn on the tv”. I said I couldn’t and she said “do it right now, a plane just crashed into a building in NYC. Of course, my husband and I were glued to the tv for the next several days/weeks.
I was in Charleston at a hotel. I was there to help a friend. Her divorce was being finalized that morning. We had spent the day before at the AFB packing up her stuff still housed in her former home on base. We were supposed to return to the base that day to finish up. That would not happen as the base went on lockdown. She and her dad came back to the hotel after the divorce hearing. I had not turned on the TV yet. I sat on the edge of the bed with my boyfriend at the time and watched in horror at what had transpired that morning. We ventured out to find food, The city was deserted. The streets mostly empty. The skies now devoid of planes. It was quiet, so very quiet. We found a bar open so we could grab some food. Every TV in the bar was showing the footage . The mood was somber. Everyone spoke softly. That evening my boyfriend at the time and I dropped my friend and her dad at the train station to return north to Maryland as they were successfully able to secure tickets. We felt restless, scared, nervous, unsettled. A movie theater had opened and we opted for the mindless distraction. We watched Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
I was a senior in college and had just finished a class. I was in the computer lab when my cell phone rang. My twin sister (who had graduated a year before me and was now working in NYC) called and said ” New York City is under attack!” She sounded like she was running and terrified for her life. I remember springing to my feet and everyone in the computer lab turning to look at me as I expressed my horror at what had happened and my concern for my sister’s safety. I stayed on the phone with her as long as I could before we were disconnected. She ended up walking at least 70 blocks to her apartment and was safe. I made it back to my apartment and watched as the towers fell.
I was in college in San Francisco and my alarm was the radio. I remember being woken up with a report that the White House was being evacuated. I immediately turned on the TV and watched Peter Jennings for days on end.
My husband called me from his local office to tell me to turn the tv on. I watched in horror, thinking how he had opted to work locally instead of his office at One Financial, across from the towers. He lost a friend, a young father of two toddlers, who was attending the conference at Windows on the World. I think every surrounding town lost friends and neighbors that day. Such a sad, sad day for our country.
My husband and I were on our way to work. We stayed glued to the tv at our office most of the day. It was the one year anniversary that I remember more. I gave birth to our first son, So although we will never forget, we have reason to celebrate this day as well…our son who is now 19.
I was headed to work after returning from my delayed honeymoon. We were married on 9/11/99. The only reason my husband who is a United Airline pilot wasn’t flying is because we had just returned the day before. See like Jason Dahl, my husband was an instructor at the time. They displace other pilots to get their hours in. To add to the tragedy, my husband had flown with Leroy Homer in the USAF and his sister worked just a couple of blocks away from the World Trade Center……it took my husband years to recover from all the tragedy. We came together as a nation during that time. We were kind, respectful of one another and gracious. I hope one day we can come tougher again. Not through tragedy, but this is when America is at its beat
September 11, 2001 started off as a very unusual morning for me. Instead of being busy at my job (office manager for a neurology clinic), I was at having a simple outpatient medical procedure done. As I was recovering at home, lounging on the sofa, I woke up to see the most horrific scenes on the television. I was kind of dazed and groggy, and I said to my husband, “This is a terrible movie on the TV. I don’t want to watch this movie.” He came over and sat down next to me and tried to explain that this “movie” was real life and happening now. I was in complete shock. I kept asking him if I was awake. This terror couldn’t be real, could it? September 11, 2001, forever filled with pain and sorrow for the many lives lost. RIP.
I was a Senior in college…about to walk out the door to class when I saw the news (living at the sorority house at the time). We just sat, stunned over what we were witnessing. I then walked to class, but it got cancelled…I remember thinking what’s the point right now to be here? Whenever something monumental happens, I always want to be with people. To process what is happening together.
Anyway, I also pointedly remember that we were taking a trip about a month later and had T-shirts’ on that had a patriotic ribbon on the front side and “United we stand” on the side. My Dad loves NYC, so he went a month later to support the city, and he took us the following March. I’ll never forget going down there and seeing it still smoldering. I had lived in NYC in the summer of 2000, so it was surreal to be there in this new reality.
In 2019, we took a family trip…moms, daughters, cousins, aunts…we spent half a day at the memorial, museum, and Freedom Tower. Very emotional, but totally worth it!
We were packing to drive home from our beach house and to catch a flight to NYC, as our youngest had taken a job there. I was terrified to even drive home to Ohio through the VA tunnels, as so much was unknown. The highways were deserted as we drove home. So eerie and such sadness. She ended up taking the first flight out of Ohio when they opened the airports. I was so apprehensive and sad to watch her go.
I was in high school and it was such a strange, chaotic day. I remember saving the newspaper from the next day because all the details were all over the place the day of and I just wanted some clarity on what exactly had happened. I came home and just watched the news for hours before my mom got home. I remember wondering how I might explain something like this to my nephews who were so young and wouldn’t remember anything. Today I had to explained a bit of it to my 5 year old and it felt impossible but also like a good start all at the same time.
I was at home with my 5 year old and 3 year old children. My husband was on an early morning flight from Chicago to Philadelphia. He was supposed to fly out the evening before, but his flight got cancelled due to bad weather in the area. He had no idea what was going on at the time, but he said the plane’s landing was extremely hard and the worst he had ever experienced. Most likely due to the pilots wanting to land the plane as quickly as possible. When he walked off the plane everyone was gathered around the tv monitors in the airport and shocked at what they saw. He immediately got a rental car and drove back to Chicago. I was so happy to hear his voice because I had been watching everything unfold on tv.
I was a Captain in the Army, attending a school at Ft. Gordon, GA. I stood shoulder to shoulder with my fellow officers watching our country under attack on the TV.
We all wondered where we were about to deploy and how soon, while hoping friends in the Pentagon were okay.
I was at home when my radio alarm woke me up reporting that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Like many people I initially thought it was a small plane accident. I flipped on the TV and when I realized we were under attack, I called my now-husband, who worked as a civilian at a local Air Force R&D center. They were on lockdown and all the phone lines were busy. I called my mom and together on the phone we watched our TVs. I will never forget her voice and her starting to cry when the first tower fell. I don’t think we comprehended that they could fall — until then, there was a feeling of, okay, the worst is over, now let’s get those people rescued. When they fell, it was incomprehensible.
We had a friend at the Pentagon, his office was at the Navy Annex, but he spent most of his time at the Pentagon in meetings. We finally reached him at 5PM that day. It was so scary not knowing if he was okay. We had just been up to DC to visit him a couple months before.
I was on my way from New Jersey to visit my parents in Brooklyn, NY with my husband, 4 month old baby girl and 2 year old son when we saw the second plane hit the South Tower, while driving over the Verrazano Bridge in Brooklyn NY. It changed me forever-especially when I think about how just 5 years prior to 9/11, I worked on the 105th floor in the South Tower for years.
The day before is my birthday, and I’d been out late with friends and had planned to skip my early morning class in law school. When my alarm finally went off, the radio clicked on . . . and in my dream state I thought it was something like Orson Wells’ War of the Worlds. I remember thinking, “This is a terrible thing for the radio station to do. People will think it’s real.” And then, of course, I realized that it was real. I spent the next few days crying, walking around like a zombie. It was hard to imagine that something so horrific had happened here, in our country. I’ll never forget watching people jump from the towers.
I distinctly remember how brightly the sun was shining that day and how happy I felt heading into work that day. I also remember that my co-worker and I were surprisingly the first two in that day – we were usually the last two because of school drop off. At a little before 9am, another co-worker arrived into the office very upset and asked if we’d heard about the tragedy in New York (we hadn’t yet heard). I immediately logged onto msn.com and learned that planes had hit both of the towers. I was so confused at how that had happened. I guess I’m naive because a terrorist attack didn’t even occur to me. I thought it must be some kind of air traffic control malfunction. We soon learned about the other two planes. I work at a University so students and staff were gathering around TVs to follow the developing story and there was talk of all major cities being targets. I immediately thought about my husband, who worked in downtown Boston, and learned that they were beginning to evacuate most downtown buildings (it took him hours to get out of the city that day). I also called my daughter’s school to be told that, while all staff and teachers had been informed of what was going on, the children were blissfully unaware and that they planned to go about the school day as planned. Much of the rest of the day was a blur though I do remember, later that day, struggling with how to explain what had happened to my 8 year old daughter. So hard to believe that 20 years have passed since that tragic day.
I heard the news on the radio while getting ready for school. It seems unreal, like a movie. I remember coming to Valencia and seeing my friend Sharon in the parking lot. We just hugged for the longest time. God bless America and all our heroes then and now. Miss you! Nancy xo