Memories of 9/11

ilfaith

On the 13th anniversary of 9/11, I have seen several friends share their memories of that day. I thought we could share them here .

As someone who was living in NYC at the time, it still sometimes amazes me that I can remember every detail of that day so clearly all these years later.

When the news broke that a plane had hit one of the towers, I was sitting on the couch of my Murray Hill apartment, eating an English muffin and watching Today. I had a job interview that morning (and another one scheduled for the afternoon). My first thought on seeing video of the gaping wound in the side of the Tower was that a small plane wouldn't have done that much damage. My second thought was of my friend who worked in the Trade Center. I'd met her there for lunch about a week before to celebrate her birthday. I sat glued to the news footage as there was an explosion from the second tower. Of course it became clear this was no accident. I remember meteorologist Janice Huff called into Today to point out that it was indeed another plane hitting the building. It was soon time to leave for my interview. It was right in the neighborhood. Madison in the 30s. I walked out into a clear, dry, sunny morning. One of those perfect September days. And walked the few blocks to my appointment. When I arrived, everyone in the office was sitting in a conference room tuned to CNN. The woman with whom I was meeting asked if I knew what was going on downtown. I told her I did and she said her husband worked near the WTC. We started the interview, although our minds were elsewhere. Someone barged into the room to announce that another plane had hit the Pentagon. We tried to continue in spite of the distractions. Suddenly we heard a collective gasp from the conference room. My interviewer grabbed me by the hand and we ran down the hall, only to discover the first tower had just collapsed. That was pretty much the end of my interview. It didn't matter. the job wasn't right for me. I walked home. The sky still blue, the air still clear...not a hint of the dust and smoke that would soon cast a pall over the city.

The rest of the day was somewhat surreal. I watched the fall of the second tower, learned about the plane down in Pennsylvania and wondered what the next target would be. My apartment was just a few blocks east of the Empire State Building and a few blocks south of Grand Central Station. Who could feel safe? I went outside to get away from the news footage. There were people walking uptown, traumatized, some covered in dust from the Towers. Others sat outside in cafes as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. That evening we had dinner, as planned at Keene's Chophouse...meeting my sister-in-law's new boyfriend (now husband) for the first time. We were surrounded by stranded out-of-towners. It would be some time before normal air travel resumed. My own parents were stuck in Hawaii.

On Wednesday the 12th the wind changed direction and the smell of smoke blew uptown, leaving a layer of dust on our windows. That night our building was evacuated due to a bomb threat. We stood on the sidewalk with contraband cats (no pets allowed in our co-op) and wondered what to do. What would happen next? I had a few nightmares.

The next few days were heartbreaking, as the families of the missing plastered posters of their loved ones all over the city. Husbands, wives, sons and daughters, smiling in pictures copied at Kinkos and hung from every bus shelter and lamp post in the city.

About a week after 9/11 I finally heard back from my friend who worked in the WTC. She had taken the later train in that morning. Had she gotten to work earlier, she would have been at the point of impact. None of her colleagues who were in the office survived.