We Will NEVER Forget
I remember the morning of 9/11 well. I was already at work when everything happened. I worked for a company that handled claims for the insurance companies and I started before 8am. My day started like any other. Going through the claims I needed to make calls on in the morning and looking through all the new claims that had been assigned to me. The office was quiet, nothing out of the ordinary for this time of day.
A co-worker, Jessica, came into work and she was in a huff about some fool driving on the road this morning. She vented for a few minutes and then stated that a plane had flown into one of the towers about 5 minutes before and right before she got out of her car, a second plane had hit the other tower. She said “We might be under attack!”
Our office was small, but we did have a tv in the conference room and one of the managers went in and turned it on so we could be updated. So far there had not been a lot of updates on our news. Management told us to continue to work…easier said then down. Our group handled claims on the east coast! I will never forget one call I had reluctantly made, the man answered the phone and when I told him what I was calling for, he said “we are under attack and this will have to wait!” Ok, that was the last call I made for the day pertaining to work. I told management the situation and that I was not calling anymore, we looked like we did not care what was happening to New York.
From there I made calls to my sister who was at home, she continued to keep us updated because by this time, they had turned out TV off at work. It was so hard to believe what was going on. Somewhere between 10 – 11am the owner of the company gathered all employees that wanted to pray into the center of the room. We stood holding hands in a circle praying for all involved that everything would be ok. After that, the company closed the doors for the day and we were allowed to go home.
I hauled cookies to get my kids from school, I did not feel safe leaving them there. All our schools were on lock down, and I had to show ID to pick each of them up. We spent the rest of the day, in our home, locked and safe from everything that was happening. I will never forget how terrified I was for the safety of my family.
Later that night we heard many stories about relatives who were supposed to be there and did not go to work for one reason or another. Same with friends of the family! How lucky they were to be safe at home while others gave their lives by just showing up to work.
Within the next few days my oldest was to go to NJ for a wedding that was taking place in Manhattan with her Grandmother. I was terrified to let her go, but she really wanted to. She came home telling me about the soldiers with the big guns in the airports and how safe everything was.
We will NEVER forget the events that unfolded on 9/11! We are still waiting for the there to be an end to all of this. Hopefully they will find Osama Bin Laden and hold him accountable for the things he has done !