911 Ten Years Later

I knew what today would be...and what I wanted it to be...I woke up early and put on my September 11, 2001 "United We Stand" firefighters T-shirt, went downstairs, got coffee and turned on the channel that had the "Memorials" on live TV. I joined in on the moments of silence and the reading of the names and my heart "hurt" for ALL of them...ALL

Then they showed the waterfalls that were built on the sites of the Twin Towers and I thought "They did it...and they got it right" How beautiful to keep those sacred spots intact. Water has such a calming sound and effect on us...All I could think was...The waterfalls represent the millions of tears that have fallen since 911 ten years ago and the many more that will still fall. And there are tears from Heaven mixed in as well...There is also what seems to be a dark hole in the middle and it reminds me of the darkness of that day. The names of those lost that day are inscribed around the walls of the waterfall, again, they got it right. So simple a design, so beautiful a message...

I have spent the day watching the History channel and I am moved to my own tears and am horrified by the stories and videos that are playing ,but I am "keeping" this day as sacred by honoring every story that I can. Church could not even affect me today as much as I was comforted by The President reading the bible verse that he read-parts of Psalms 46 if I am correct. He will be criticized, I am sure, but he "got it right"


Although The Twin Towers was the main focus and the greatest loss of lives, there were other places attacked as well-The Pentagon and because of the heroes on Flight 93, The White House was spared and that plane went down in Pennsylvania. I cannot imagine the horror of being in any of those places on that sad day...whether you were facing death or risking your own life to save another or waiting anxiously to hear of your loved ones fate. "Where were you?" sang Alan Jackson a short time later. I remember where I was-I was at work, as a nurse, taking care of mothers and newborn babies. I was in disbelief at first and then when I knew it was a real threat, I began to try to dissuade my patients from watching the TV. Why? Because this was the first day of their babies lives and it did not need to begin in terror. After I did that, I went to the desk and remember Danielle, a nurse I worked with, trying desperately to get in touch with her cousin, who worked at Twin Towers, but there was no phone service. I went into the kitchen and cried. I truly thought it was the beginning of the end of the world and I cried, thinking "These babies have NO future, My children have NO future...I have no future" The rest is a blur. I cannot even tell you if Danielle's cousin was OK or not. To this day, I don't know. I checked with my sister-in-law because I truly did not remember. She had a cousin  James Deblase, who perished along with his co workers at Cantor-Fitzgerald.  My memory is not intact to that time and I did not even have anyone that I knew directly involved. However my daughter had visited NYC exactly one month earlier on Aug 11Th and had been up in one of The Twin Towers having dinner. She took a picture of The Twin Towers later that day which I keep to this day as a special reminder.

Just one month later, New York City changed forever. A whole nation changed forever and now we had "collateral damage" to deal with...the survivors, those who lost loved ones, and we were not even looking to the future yet when so many more would be lost due to this in the form of our US troops. It really hasn't stopped, has it? It goes on and on in a different form and lest we forget, there are STILL heroes "on the job" who deal with terrorism every day-our US Soldiers. They volunteer to keep us safe and they choose to keep us safe. I think the word us is spelled U.S. for a reason. It's not really a coincidence, is it? I hope this day is meaningful to "US" every one of US and for what it's worth, I vow to remember and never forget to be thankful and grateful to live in the greatest country in the world, the land of the free and home of the brave...

And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea...