I was watching the news yesterday with Jack and he asked what "9/11" is. So we talked and I told him enough to satisfy his four-year-old brain without going too far. I had the news on this morning when I was giving them breakfast which was a mistake. I was way more emotional than I had anticipated and Jack had ALL kinds of questions about why the two buildings fell down and how it happened to "our country."
I explained what I could and quickly turned on an episode of Curious George.
The week of 9/11/2001 was the week that Kyle and I officially started dating. I remember that my mind was so consumed with our relationship that week . . . mainly because I thought I would be searching for a new job and ready to leave camp and wondering if I should move forward with that search or plan on sticking around for a while.
That Tuesday morning, I was at work and must have missed the news coverage by just a minute or two when I turned the television off to head to work because I normally left my apartment at 8:55. At about 9:30, I left work and drove to the post office to pick up the mail and was listening to a Christian radio station. They were interviewing a member of Third Day who was talking about the tragedy that had struck America and I was puzzled. As I pulled back into camp, I saw Chuck and Linda standing at the intersection by the office talking. I rolled down my window and they told me what had happened. We all went to the staff lounge and watched the news coverage. We watched in horror as the first tower collapsed, and shortly later, the second tower.
Remember how the news coverage was 24 hours on every network station for almost a week after the attacks? I had a little tv at work and watched almost continually. Probably too much. I remember crying and wondering how any group of people could ever be so full of hatred.
I checked my e-mail that day (I had to dial up and log on to check my e-mail, so I only did it once or twice a day . . . my, how things have changed) and got one from Kyle asking if he could come over that night. We spent the next few nights watching the news together.
I think it's surreal to most of us that 10 years have already passed since that day. Probably because it still affects so much of our lives and the heartbreak is still so fresh.
1 comment:
It helps so much to hear other stories, and to heal together. I've been in tears all night, thinking about that kind of hate and the lives destroyed. As for where I was, I was teaching a class of second graders:
http://makinglemonadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/ten.html
To this day, I still remember those innocent faces as I heard the news whispered in my ear by my principal. Some images you just never forget.
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