Twenty-five years.
The world has changed so much. Math isn’t taught the same way. Books are listened to and essays transcribed by ChatGPT.
Still, I remember clearly that morning.
My oldest son was just a wee bit past his first birthday, crawling with little interest in walking solo. Interesting how today my granddaughters are at their same place in life … I digress so easily. Likely because of the horror that over-shadows his little face.
I was settling on the couch for my every-day wake up routine of coffee and The Today Show. Matt Lauer was prattling on about something … nothing … when the morning update abruptly halted for a Breaking News Story, followed by a camera angle of billowing smoke and fire from the high top of the North Tower.
Dumbfounded but not muted, I called my sister who was living in Chelsea at the time. She flipped on the news, simultaneously looking out the window to hear what was happening and confirm I wasn’t making it up…
Thank heavens for that phone call as it was the only way to know she was safe. The line went dead when the South Tower was hit.
As I shared that story with my husband this morning, the same chills went up my spine and twisted my stomach.
His story was different, yet the emotion was the same. As if still in real-time with real fear and worry and doubt.
He lived in Tucson, working for the same defense company he works for now. So while I was worried what the tomorrow’s would look like for my child, he wondered if he’d see his children again or was the building that surrounded him also a target.
It seems so surreal …even though year over year I watch the same videos and interviews like it happened hours ago. Though today, I also look for the good stories that came out over the hours and days that followed. A rookie pilot that scrambled to get her plane in the air sans missiles with plans to crash into United flight 93; yet, the passengers, crew and God intervened. A Tennessee nurse that ignored the ground stop to get a liver to a sick baby in Houston, a baby that today is attending law school with plans to improve health care policy.
We cannot forget September 11, 2001. Ever.
The events of that day must be taught, talked about, shared and honored.
So must the stories of September 12.