[Please note: This is a “serious” post. If you come here for lighthearted and uplifting stuff, please come back tomorrow or check out the home page for other posts. Since it is September 11, I wrote from the heart.]
September 11, 2001 was a defining moment for my generation. Before that, I remember being asked where I was when the Space Shuttle exploded, but “9/11” is certainly a day etched into my memory. I can recall so many details… where I was, who I was with, the perfect blue sky on the beautiful fall day in the Philadelphia suburbs where I was working, the “small plane” crash reported on Yahoo.com, the internet crashing, the call from my boyfriend (now husband) to come home, getting so may calls from friends wondering where my consulting job had taken me that day, seeing the space where the buildings once stood on TVs set up in our work space and speaking to my friends and family. I will never forget going to NYC to “help” at the Armory and seeing the void in the skyline, smelling the burning rubble and the thousands of missing persons posters with smiling faces on them.
In the days and weeks that followed, I listened to story after story on NPR and cried through the Portraits of Grief in the NY Times. I read every single one. I wanted to honor as many people as I could by learning about them.
We were fortunate to lose only one friend. Considering that we both went to school in the Tri-State area and had many friends working downtown, we were truly, truly lucky. As the days unfolded, I learned that two friends’ fathers both narrowly escaped the second tower and cried tears of joy with my friends in the retelling. I heard chilling stories from my friends who worked in hospitals of clearing space and waiting in empty ERs for patients who never came. I learned of people I knew who had lost people they loved dearly.
I also remember some other things about the weeks after 9/11. People in NYC and the surrounding areas were kinder. People all over the US and the world were more charitable. People gave. People tried. People acknowledged one another. People cared and told others so. In honor of Matt Leonard, and all of those lost on September 11th, I will try to be kinder, to acknowledge people and to tell the people I love how I feel more often.
Tomorrow, I return to my usual blog programming, but I promise to never forget.