I Remember...

This a re-post from 2 years ago... the sentiments still run strong for me today. Pray without ceasing and hold your loved ones close always.

It was Action Man's second day of Montessori school, the first day we would be carpooling with another family. I called my friend to see how the drive had gone (20 miles each way, all highway driving...) when I got her husband on the phone.

All he said to me was, "Turn on the TV."

I did, and was horrified when I saw the North Tower of the World Trade Center engulfed in smoke. And then, the unthinkable.... words cannot describe my feelings as I watched United flight 175 crash into the South Tower.

At each replay, I wanted them to pause, to stop rolling tape, just so that those with loved ones on board could say good bye. I wanted the editors to come out and move the plane over a few city blocks in order to miss the tower altogether.

And then...the Towers came down.

And they never stopped.

It made my knees weak and I just sank to the ground.

I still remember the sound of that crash.



Peggy Noonan wrote an editorial back then in the Wall Street Journal, talking about the sounds of that day, of the thunderous crash of steel and metal. And she talked about a different sound as well. The one that emerged from the rubble of Ground Zero.



I think too about the sounds that came from within the buildings and within the planes--the phone calls and messages left on answering machines, all the last things said to whoever was home and picked up the phone. They awe me, those messages.

No one said anything unneeded, extraneous or small. Crisis is a great editor. When you read the transcripts that have been released over the years it's all so clear.

This is what I get from the last messages. People are often stronger than they know, bigger, more gallant than they'd guess. And this: We're all lucky to be here today and able to say what deserves saying, and if you say it a lot, it won't make it common and so unheard, but known and absorbed.



There were other sounds, heard all around the country, after the planes hit the towers. Prayers, tears, phone calls... I called my mom to make sure that my uncle had not been one of the "first responders" to the Towers. He was a third generation NYC firefighter, a lieutenant, no less, and I knew he would not hesitate to help those in trouble. (He was not, but the emotional toll it took on him and his comrades to take 24 hour shifts at Ground Zero for weeks after, is something I will never be able to imagine. My heart ached for him during that whole ordeal...)

There was anger, and immense pride. One of my favorite scenes was when Mr. Bush visited Ground Zero, and the firefighters started chanting "USA! USA! USA!" That was heard around the world, and still echoes today. Mr. Bush became our president that day. I'm glad he still is.


Ms. Noonan said it best:
I think the sound of the last messages, of what was said, will live as long in human history, and contain within it as much of human history, as any old metallic roar.

May God Bless America.