It is so hard for me to believe it has been 13 years since the horrific terrorist attack against our country on September 11, 2001. I remember that day as if it just happened yesterday. My heart still hurts for all of the innocent lives taken that fateful morning and I must admit that I still cannot believe something so evil ever really took place.
I was working the night shift at a hospital the night
before and had an uneasy feeling all night long and was grateful to finally be
home with my kids. I laid down to get a quick nap while they were still
sleeping and had just fallen asleep when the phone rang.
Being exhausted after a long night of work I decided to just ignore it
but it just kept ringing. So after about the third or fourth call I
answered the phone irritated to have been woken up.
On the other end of the line was my frantic husband
rambling on about the United States being attacked by terrorists. I
became even more agitated as I thought he was playing a joke on me and I hung
up on him. He immediately called back and told me to just turn on the TV.
So, just to appease him I got out of bed and went into the living room
and turned on the morning news just in time to watch the second plane fly into
the World Trade Center. I was completely speechless and terrified as
tears streamed down my face. I begged my husband to come home from work,
obviously he could not just walk out the door to come home and comfort me but I
was really, really scared.
I do not remember much about the rest of that day as I
walked around in a daze from the shock of it all. It took days before the
reality of what had just happened sunk in. I do remember that I was still sitting in
front of the TV crying when my husband got home from work. I had even
called in sick for work that night because I could not stand the thought of
being away from my girls who were 2 years old and 6 months old at the time.
I know that for the most part Americans felt blindsided and as if they were hit by a
ton of bricks from the evil we had just witnessed. I don't think any of us ever thought that
something of that magnitude could or would ever happen here on our soil.
I know I took it extra hard because I am originally from New Jersey and
have a cousin who worked in the World Trade Center at that time. Thankfully, she was out of the state on a business trip when the planes
hit the towers and was and is physically fine. But I also could not stop
thinking about how my 12 year old son was just in New York City a few weeks
earlier with my Mom and sister and how it could have very easily of been
them.
Despite how hard we fought to not let it change us as individuals and as a country, our way of life here in America changed in a blink of an eye that tragic day in September. Slowly we all began to heal and accept our new normal here in the United States and took the steps to go on with our lives. But as I watched the memorial services and heard the bells ringing for each plane that crashed on the news this morning, I had tears in my eyes and realized there was still a sense of fear in my heart which left me pondering whether or not those wounds inflicted to our souls that day would ever completely heal.
So today, on what we now call Patriot Day, I want to thank all of the men and women who sacrifice everything to ensure our nation's safety as well as their families for all that they sacrifice too. To all the family members who lost their loved ones you are in my thoughts and prayers, not only today but every day!
© 2014 Lysa Wilds
At 8:45 am EST American Airlines Flight #11 was deliberately flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center
At 9:03 am EST American Airlines Flight #175 flies into the South Tower of the World Trade Center
At 9:43 am EST American Airlines Flight #77 crashes into the Pentagon
At 10:10 am EST American Airlines Flight #93 crashes in Somerset County, Pennsylvania
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