Fast forward from the mid-eighties to Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001. I had an early morning doctor appointment downtown Austin to do lab work at my gynecologist's office. My husband had taken our son to elementary school that morning and took off to work. I was coming out of the lab into the waiting room and heard some of the ladies behind the desk rustling around with nervousness. I did not know what they heard on the radio. I walked out and got into my car to drive to the office, thirty minutes away. I always had my radio on and had the volume down that morning. I usually listened to music but there was no music. I heard DJs talking and thought to myself, 'Be quiet and play music'. When I turned it up, the DJ said they had breaking news. First thing that came to mind was a traffic jam or terrible wreck. Little did I know that they were about to tell me news that was utterly unbelievable. Simply stated was all they know is that a plane hit a building in New York City. I heard the nervousness in their voice and it was weird. The closer I got to the office, the more they began to describe what they knew and saw on cable television. When they said this at first, all I thought was that a commuter plane lost sense of direction because of visibility, because all I knew about downtown NYC is that it was near the water. Since it was an early September morning, I had rationalized what happened and not sure why this would be breaking news. I was a few exits away from work and they said, "America is under attack. A commercial airplane was flown into the World Trade Center." Hearing this statement burned into my mind and my heart sank. I immediately got my phone and called my husband to know if he heard the same thing. When I got through to him, he said yes. I trembled and was terrified to hear this news and did not know what I should do knowing this information. He said, go to the office and stay there. I immediately thought about the safety of our son. Again, my husband assured me that he was safe at school.
Finally, I pulled into the office parking lot and immediately asked people if they heard the news. Nobody knew what I was talking about. We went on the Internet and found NO NEWS. I kept going around asking if anyone knew this was happening. I went to my director and other leaders I knew in the office. They said to go to our conference room and turn on the cable television. I rallied my co-workers to gather around the television and watch the news. As we watched, everyone was paralyzed with disbelief. Then, the second plane hit the second tower. I screamed! The air left the room and we could not believe what we were seeing. I began crying and called the elementary school to check on my child. They were on lock down and said kids were going to be sent home on time. Since my child was a car rider, I wanted to go get him. Hug him and burrow in our home. I left the office. Got my child. Took him home and explained what I knew. He had always been a curious child and we had complete transparency to the truth. He wasn't as engaged and wanted to read his books. I understand that he did not get the event, but he was living through history.
Tomorrow morning, I will hold my breath and pray for those impacted by this horrific event in our country's history. I will probably do this every year until I can no longer breathe. I have done this since 2002.
Today, I hold life, family and friends close. I am blessed every day that I wake up and my feet hit the ground.
I love your guts.
