story4412.xml
Title
story4412.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-09-11
911DA Story: Story
September 11, 2001
It started out as a normal tuesday morning. Me waking up late and rushing to work. Work for me starts daily at 5:30am. I had a strange feeling that something just wasn't right on this morning and I started getting scared thinking something was wrong with my Father. He lived in Michigan and a few years earlier had had triple bypass surgery. So everytime I get feelings like that, I think something is wrong with him. I was soon to realize nearly an hour and a half later why I had been feeling this way. Although very devastated at what I was to soon realize was happening to our Great Nation, very thankful that my Father was okay.
At work, we listen to music on the radio and soon after our 2nd rotation, the music turned to News about a plane that had hit one of the Twin Towers in NYC. At first I was just in complete disbelief. I thought to myself, "How could this have happened? Why was there a plane flying so low? Didn't the pilot know better? OH MY GOD!" I was mesmerized on the radios all over our plant. Then we heard that the other Tower had also been hit by a second plane. Again I thought, "What in the hell is going on? Is this just an ironic accident?" Never had I thought that it would be terrorists attacking America and our people. The more my co-workers and I listened the more devestation we continued to hear. The pentagon was hit, then a plane had crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Then I thought, "What is going to happen next?" The more we listened the more we heard the media saying this was a terrorist attack. My work did not allow anyone to leave. I guess upper management felt that it wasn't neccessary. Although I felt it was. All I wanted to do was go and pick up my children and hold them forever and tell them how much I loved them. I was unsure if we were going to be attacked here. And all that I could think is if we were attacked and were going to die, I wanted us to die together, holding one another. I was a single 31 year old Mother with a 11 year old son, a 6 year old son and a 1 year old daughter. I didn't know what to believe until I returned home that evening to hear what President George W. Bush had to say in his address to the Nation at 5pm AZ time. Then everything was clear to me. I became so angry but all I could do was cry. I called a friend of mine whom I met when she came to AZ as a Church Missionary from Florida. She Baptized me and my oldest son. I knew that she was now an intern in Washington D.C. at or near the Pentagon and I was so afraid for her. I needed to know that she was okay. Thankfully when I called, she was safe at home in her apartment. I wanted to go to NYC to help. Then I thought, "Who am I? I am only one person, a single Mother with 3 children struggling to survive my daily life. Trying to raise my children the best I can." I felt so hopeless. Wanting still to help in anyway I could. As I was watching the news as I had been ever since 9/11, I saw on the T.V. screen a phone number to call for United Way for Donations of anything and everything. Money, blood, blankets, food, water, you name it, they needed it. So although I don't have much, I realized I had been spared and I had more than many others had because of that fateful day. I had my family. So I called that phone number and I donated a mere $25. I wanted so much to give more but I knew I could not afford it. I then called to make an appointment to give blood. The blood banks were so over crowded even here in AZ that to give blood, there was an approximate 2 week waiting list. Which was so touching. They asked for my name and phone number and they said they would call when they could make the appointment for me to give blood. They never called. It made me sad but it was also very comforting to know that we Americans could all pull together, Nation wide for our fellow Americans in need. I continued to watch CNN and everything I could for daily information. I didn't want to miss a thing. I was glued to the television everyday, every minute I was at home for approximately 2 months. I wouldn't go anywhere, not even to the Grocery store. Until I just could not take it anymore. I had to again find some kind of normalcy in this life. Not for me but for my children. I began to realize, yes, the most horrific attack on American soil had happened, but I am still living and my children still need their Mother. I lived everyday, scared to death that the bombs were going to come and land here at my home. I was afraid to go to work for fear that if it was to happen, my children would be scared and alone without me and possibly die woundering where their Mother was and why I wasn't there to help them. As time passed I started feeling more secure that the bombs were not going to come. Somehow time began to heal the wounds. Although the scars will forever be here, I have once again begun to live. I have a new found compassion for Life, Love and Liberty. And hearing the stories from the families who lost loved ones, the survivors and the many Heros of 9/11, I have finally in some way figured out what I want to do with my life. I want to help people, either by becoming a Fire Fighter, or by becoming a 911 dispatcher, or a nurse. Something of that nature. Now I just need to figure out which one I will be able to offer the most of myself for others.
Although I did not personally loose a loved one on that fateful day, I still feel the pain and sorrow of loss, of a Nations innocence. I try not to take life for granted. I make sure to always tell my family and friends "I Love You." And now on this day, September 11, 2002, the 1 year Anniversary of this Sacred Day of terror, We Remember, Pray, and Honnor all those who perished, the injured, the Families, and the thousands of Heros of that very painful Day. And also the months that came after. The clean up of these tradgedies. I can't even imagine what it must have consisted of to get to the point of where we are now from where we were 1 year ago.
God Bless You All and God Bless America!
I Will Never Forget.
I Love you Always, Deanna Lynn Cook
Mesa, Arizona
It started out as a normal tuesday morning. Me waking up late and rushing to work. Work for me starts daily at 5:30am. I had a strange feeling that something just wasn't right on this morning and I started getting scared thinking something was wrong with my Father. He lived in Michigan and a few years earlier had had triple bypass surgery. So everytime I get feelings like that, I think something is wrong with him. I was soon to realize nearly an hour and a half later why I had been feeling this way. Although very devastated at what I was to soon realize was happening to our Great Nation, very thankful that my Father was okay.
At work, we listen to music on the radio and soon after our 2nd rotation, the music turned to News about a plane that had hit one of the Twin Towers in NYC. At first I was just in complete disbelief. I thought to myself, "How could this have happened? Why was there a plane flying so low? Didn't the pilot know better? OH MY GOD!" I was mesmerized on the radios all over our plant. Then we heard that the other Tower had also been hit by a second plane. Again I thought, "What in the hell is going on? Is this just an ironic accident?" Never had I thought that it would be terrorists attacking America and our people. The more my co-workers and I listened the more devestation we continued to hear. The pentagon was hit, then a plane had crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Then I thought, "What is going to happen next?" The more we listened the more we heard the media saying this was a terrorist attack. My work did not allow anyone to leave. I guess upper management felt that it wasn't neccessary. Although I felt it was. All I wanted to do was go and pick up my children and hold them forever and tell them how much I loved them. I was unsure if we were going to be attacked here. And all that I could think is if we were attacked and were going to die, I wanted us to die together, holding one another. I was a single 31 year old Mother with a 11 year old son, a 6 year old son and a 1 year old daughter. I didn't know what to believe until I returned home that evening to hear what President George W. Bush had to say in his address to the Nation at 5pm AZ time. Then everything was clear to me. I became so angry but all I could do was cry. I called a friend of mine whom I met when she came to AZ as a Church Missionary from Florida. She Baptized me and my oldest son. I knew that she was now an intern in Washington D.C. at or near the Pentagon and I was so afraid for her. I needed to know that she was okay. Thankfully when I called, she was safe at home in her apartment. I wanted to go to NYC to help. Then I thought, "Who am I? I am only one person, a single Mother with 3 children struggling to survive my daily life. Trying to raise my children the best I can." I felt so hopeless. Wanting still to help in anyway I could. As I was watching the news as I had been ever since 9/11, I saw on the T.V. screen a phone number to call for United Way for Donations of anything and everything. Money, blood, blankets, food, water, you name it, they needed it. So although I don't have much, I realized I had been spared and I had more than many others had because of that fateful day. I had my family. So I called that phone number and I donated a mere $25. I wanted so much to give more but I knew I could not afford it. I then called to make an appointment to give blood. The blood banks were so over crowded even here in AZ that to give blood, there was an approximate 2 week waiting list. Which was so touching. They asked for my name and phone number and they said they would call when they could make the appointment for me to give blood. They never called. It made me sad but it was also very comforting to know that we Americans could all pull together, Nation wide for our fellow Americans in need. I continued to watch CNN and everything I could for daily information. I didn't want to miss a thing. I was glued to the television everyday, every minute I was at home for approximately 2 months. I wouldn't go anywhere, not even to the Grocery store. Until I just could not take it anymore. I had to again find some kind of normalcy in this life. Not for me but for my children. I began to realize, yes, the most horrific attack on American soil had happened, but I am still living and my children still need their Mother. I lived everyday, scared to death that the bombs were going to come and land here at my home. I was afraid to go to work for fear that if it was to happen, my children would be scared and alone without me and possibly die woundering where their Mother was and why I wasn't there to help them. As time passed I started feeling more secure that the bombs were not going to come. Somehow time began to heal the wounds. Although the scars will forever be here, I have once again begun to live. I have a new found compassion for Life, Love and Liberty. And hearing the stories from the families who lost loved ones, the survivors and the many Heros of 9/11, I have finally in some way figured out what I want to do with my life. I want to help people, either by becoming a Fire Fighter, or by becoming a 911 dispatcher, or a nurse. Something of that nature. Now I just need to figure out which one I will be able to offer the most of myself for others.
Although I did not personally loose a loved one on that fateful day, I still feel the pain and sorrow of loss, of a Nations innocence. I try not to take life for granted. I make sure to always tell my family and friends "I Love You." And now on this day, September 11, 2002, the 1 year Anniversary of this Sacred Day of terror, We Remember, Pray, and Honnor all those who perished, the injured, the Families, and the thousands of Heros of that very painful Day. And also the months that came after. The clean up of these tradgedies. I can't even imagine what it must have consisted of to get to the point of where we are now from where we were 1 year ago.
God Bless You All and God Bless America!
I Will Never Forget.
I Love you Always, Deanna Lynn Cook
Mesa, Arizona
Collection
Citation
“story4412.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 31, 2025, https://www.911digitalarchive.org/items/show/8885.