story9167.xml

story9167.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-03-23

We?re nearing the 1rst anniversary of September 11th. I remember that day like it had just happened. The past year just flew by. I was home that morning. I was supposed to go into work that afternoon. My mother called me to tell me that she was in the emergency room at the hospital where she works. She said she almost fainted and they were monitoring her blood pressure. I told her that I would go there to see how she was doing. I started to get ready. I showered, got dressed and flipped on the television. I turned to the channel that does only traffic and weather. I wanted to see how the traffic was moving on the Tappanzee bridge. They were talking about a huge fire at the World trade Center. I turned the channel and there it was, both Towers were on fire. I thought to myself how can this be? Then they replayed the video of the second plane hitting one of the towers. They said we were under terrorist attack. I then found out that the Pentagon was also hit by a plane. At first watching the video It looked like a small engine plane, but they said it was a passenger jet. My first instinct was to call my mother. All the phone lines were jammed. I could not get through to Anthony either. I called my brother Michael, in Florida. I got through. He told me they sent him home from work. I called the hospital?.someone told me that my mother had been released and she went home. I called my mother at home with my eyes still glued on the live coverage. She said before she left the hospital, one of the nurses, a good friend of hers, screamed ?my son is dead!? Her son was a fireman in the city. He did die, his name was Tom Foley. She knew this even before the worst was still to come. I hung up with my mother and then finally got a hold of Anthony. He was at his father?s house watching with me. He was talking of someone he knew who works for Cantor and Fitzgerald. He said his friend told him that this guy works on the 105th floor. As we spoke we watched in horror as one of the buildings imploded. Anthony yelled the building is falling! I didn?t believe it at first, even though it was happening in front of our eyes. The media was speechless. What can you say? Anthony wanted to get in touch with a friend who works in building seven, so I called my mom again. We were on the phone wondering about Pat? I hoped he was o.k. He works in Harlem. Surely every officer was down there. All we could do was wait. As we watched the news, the second tower began to collapse, I screamed, in horror, and cried, ?all of those people!? I never felt so unsafe in my life. I felt as though there must be more planes out there ready to do more. There were rumors on the news that there were still some airplanes still unaccounted for.
My mother heard from Pat, (her boyfriend), around 1 0r 2 in the afternoon. He said he was o.k. Thank God! Days and weeks past before he could tell us his account. All he did was work around the clock for a while.
He headed down there before the second plane hit. He witnessed too much. He remembered helping people coming up from the subway when he heard the 2nd plane hit. He said it was so loud. He was on church street when the 1st building began to fall. He said he ran for his life. People were running everywhere. Some people were running into stores for safety, but he said he could not stop running. He just wanted to get as far away as possible. He inhaled and swallowed the particles. He said it felt like big chunks in his mouth. He was covered from head to toe in white. When things calmed down that evening they hosed down the guys in the street to wash them down as they lined up. He then, before getting 3 hours of sleep and going back to work, threw out his uniform.
The horror had only begun. The faces of those poor people who lost there loved ones started to emerge. They would flash their loved ones picture on t.v. and ask if anyone can help them find him or her. It was incredibly sad. The wall of the missing. So chilling to think of all those faces, most likely dead. But there was still hope, it was early yet perhaps some survivors will be found. Unfortunately only 5 were found. I cannot imagine living through that. The horror of being up so high and choosing to jump to my death rather than burn alive. Some of the news stations did show people leaping to there death. I could not watch, it was unimaginable.
We must have watched t.v. for days. I would go to sleep at night and hope the next day was good news. ?We found 12 police officers!? A woman that evening said she got a call from someone saying they were caught under the rubble. He was down there with some police officers. She was full of shit , we later found out. She just wanted to get on t.v. It?s amazing how these events can bring out the best and the worst in people.
They say ?9-11, never forget? I won?t ever forget, it is forever fresh in my mind and still hard to believe.