‘Where’ Were You’… SoCS I know I never will…It doesn’t even feel like it was 20 years ago.. I remember every detail of that day. I had just taken my youngest to school. He was in 2nd grade and our other 3 kids were already gone. I had one in middle school and two in high school. The husband was driving into the city, Chicago, going to work.
I had left the tv on b/c I knew I was going to be back in a couple of minutes. When I returned home, they were showing the World Trade Center on fire because it had literally just been hit by the first plane. I knew in my mind that this must be a terrorist attack as the day was a perfect sunny fall day. This was no accident. As I was watching, the second plane hit tower two. Now there was no doubt in my mind that this was a terror attack.
The first person I called of course was my mom. I asked my mom if she was watching the news and she replied, “You know I never watch the news.” I told her she needed to turn on the tv. She did, and what she saw, well there are no words to capture her reaction. I remember her responding in horror, “Oh know,” is all she said. She told me to go get the kids and she would talk to me soon.
The next person I called was the husband. He was still in the car driving to work in the city. I told him to turn around and get as far away from the city as fast as he could, but naturally he did what he wanted to and kept driving into work. I can remember saying to him often that even if the entire city was burning on fire from a nuclear attack, he would still go into work. I never dreamed how right I was !!! OMG
We had just returned from New York as we vacationed in the city. We had taken a tour bus and I remember driving past the tower’s. The kids wanted to get off the bus and go up in the towers but I said no. I actually said, “You just don’t know if a terrorist was having a bad day,” referring to the first attack in 93′. The kids of course had no idea of what I was talking about at all. The first one I got was our Connie b/c he was the closest. As time elapsed, there were two more planes down and the tower’s had collapsed. My husband was still on the road to work when I got a call from him and he asked me, “What do they mean when they say the tower’s are gone, they are no longer there?” I told him, “They collapsed and they are down and they aren’t there anymore !!!” I think at this point he is finally getting the picture but he is almost downtown and he just wants to get to his office so he can see for himself what is going on.
I got Connie home and decided to leave the other 3 at school b/c when I called the school, they told me they were probably safer there for now. So I quickly just got the house cleaned up and showered and tried to figure out my next move. I was definitely shaken up by all those events of the morning.
Poor Connie was watching tv and he was so young he didn’t understand it was just a replay on tv of them showing the collapse of the tower’s. He asked me, “Why do those building’s keep falling down.” I didn’t try to explain, I said just put on your cartoons…No worries.
The husband finally got downtown and saw for himself what was happening. His reaction as you can imagine was the same as mine. He was in shock. He said I’m turning around and I’ll be home as soon as I can. When I get there, we’ll get all the kids and go from there. I was relieved he was on his way home, but nervous about him getting there.
As he was walking back to the parking garage to get the car, he told me how eerie the city had become. Everyone was walking back to their car or trying to get home. They were looking up in the sky. It was very quiet b/c they had shut-down the air space over North America. The skies were quiet…So weird, surreal….
We got everyone home that day, and we were all so sad. To think we had just been in New York city. That evening all 6 of us went to church and prayed the Rosary because that is what we did as a family when we didn’t know what else to do. Our Catholic faith is where we fine our solace and try to make sense of things that don’t make sense.
To this day it is where we find peace. Blessing <3 . God Bless America, God Bless us All <3 .
