I HEART NY

Wow 10 years? That's ridiculous. So much time has gone by since 9/11/01, yet I can still remember every detail of it.

I was in 10th grade, I was sitting in the cafeteria in high school, trying to finish up my math homework and I was passing the lunch ladies in the morning, when one of them said, one of the twin towers just collapsed. I was thinking... what is she talking about?

As we went to every classroom, there was a TV set up and we watched the news straight for each 44 minute period. As the day progressed, everyone began to get more and more worried. We had to start closing the windows, because even from Long Island, the air became a little bit dusty, smokey, and hard to see.

All I could think about is my dad. At the time, he worked across the street from the twin towers. I worried how he would get home, if he was alright, if he wasn't being nosy and scoping out the business (which of course he was). By the time I got home, still no word from him. Around 7 oclock, he had come home. All the people in his area had to walk across the bridge to get home since all the subway systems were down and they had to walk to the nearest bus station. Luckily, a family friend picked him up on the way and he got a ride home.

That night, we had a prayer meeting at church, not only to pray for those that were affected by 9/11, but because one of our own, my sunday school teacher, was missing. He worked in the twin towers - in the morning had called his wife, said he was evacuating and said that he loved her. She never heard back. To this day, she hasn't heard back. We all cried as we prayed helplessly with hope and courage.

The next week, my dad had developed the pictures he took of the twin towers before they collapsed, with the planes in them. He said when he was taking pictures, there was debris flying into his building and he knew after he got these shots, that he would have to evacuate. When we looked at the pictures, none of us could handle it. We put it away in a drawer.

To this day, it is still tucked away in that drawer. When I look at it, the feelings are still raw. Goosebumps run up and down my spine.

Thank you to our heroes.
May we never forget this day.
9/11/01