The many emotions of 9/11

I will never forget this day....

9/11/2001- It's a beautiful morning, it is a crisp fall morning. The sun is shinning brightly.

The radio announcer reports a fire at the WTC as I pull into the garage at work. I arrive at my desk 5 minutes late but no one is at their desks. I take the stairs to the fitness room in PWP and it's standing room only. I cannot believe what I am seeing..... My co-workers are suppose to fly to Charlotte in a little while... I mentally go down the list- where are my friends: Donna is away on business but e-mails to say she is safe... Liz is in England her (9/11) flight home is canceled.

my friend has her husband's flight schedule printed out, he's on the plane that just crashed.... was he on the plane?? Later, she finds out he changed his flight at the last minute. He is safe but the FAA had the pilot land in the Midwest. All the passengers are questioned. The FAA cancels all flights. My ex-boyfriend works at the Pentagon- the plane hit on his side of the building- I learn later his co-worker dies but my ex makes it out alive....I want to be sick, I want to go home, I want to stay with my co-workers, I am in a daze....

Rob is at church. He hears a plane flying really low and then he hears the crash.... He heard the plane crash into the Pentagon..... Christy is not in NYC but in Nashville recording an album.. she writes Dry Bones as a prayer (Ezekiel 37).

The schools are in lock-down we are told to go home but not to get on the highway- it's grid locked. Cell phones don't work, all circuits are busy on land lines. My friend Archana follows me so she can go the back way home...

That night the neighborhood is a glow with candles on porches in memory of those who died. Everyone is outside talking about what happened. A family is at the cross street waving an American flag. Every car that goes by honks.

We drive to the Pentagon a few days later... you can still smell the smoke. The hole in the side of the Pentagon is indescribable... I cannot control my emotions... The Red Cross is there, relief workers are there... McDonalds is there... the parking lot looks like a tent city. We see the wreaths and the memorials. I take pictures but I feel like I am a voyeur. It doesn't feel right. We drive downtown, it feels like a ghost town. There are barricades around the Washington Memorial and a tank on the Mall....

A garden is created and dedicated to the FM employee who died at the WTC.

Fast forward 9/11/2008- We have been waiting for our second referral for two months. I'm in a store parking lot, my cell phone is ringing.. it's Duni. We have a referral for a 19 month old little boy!

9/11/2009- Melkam Addis Amet! Happy Ethiopian New Year! It's 2002 in Ethiopia. Henry and I are going out on date! I've called the restaurant, they are preparing Doro Wat. It's one of his favorites dishes.