Monday, September 11, 2006

5 yrs ago...

SEPTEMBER 11 - 5 yrs ago.

This post is brought on by a comment made in a friend's blog, and because at RP there are several forums & journals on this topic. I didn't think I had much to add, and then I started writing....

My mother was on a 2 week trip to Ireland with her best friend. That day, 5 yrs ago, they were due to fly home to Pennsylvania. I was frantic...I think I called my dad more times that day than I had ever spoken to him on the phone before. Finally, we had news. They were still in Ireland.

Mom and her friend, Anne, were embraced by the people who owned the b&b where they had stayed. Embraced by everyone at the local pub where they had dinner that night. They felt very well taken care of by the travel agents who had to change their flights - leaving them open-ended until it was OK to fly across the sea again...it was another week or so before they could come home. But they did come home safely.

On Sept 11, 2001 I was in Uniontown, PA - armpit of America, as I have called it. I worked at a screen printing company. I was calling on managers of companies in the South with whom I'd only a month to month phone relationship with. One man said "Terrible what happened in NY" and I just said "Yes, you just never know anymore." and I had NO idea what he was talking about. I got off the phone just to tell my supervisor that this guy just said the weirdest thing to me...and I had no idea what he was talking about. Five minutes later, a worker from the pressroom came in our office and told us to turn on the tv/radio.....and we heard. We closed for the day and parents rushed to schools to pick up their kids. Some co-workers couldn't find their own parents - working in that area...cell services were down...it was very scary. We were only several miles from where the PA flight would go down...

At home, I watched the images and the commentary. I called friends who worked in high office buildings in downtown Pittsburgh to make sure they knew what happened and to see if they could leave work and go home, for fear that there may be more flights crashing into tall buildings...

I can't believe its been 5 yrs. It feels like only one.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It just feels surreal to me.

Anonymous said...

Ups and downs are common in life.
Lot of empires disappeared into sand. Thats why wise people says 'Think good and Do good, then everything will happen good to you'.