It was the day of the September 11th terrorist attacks, of course, and it was one of the few times in life when virtually nothing that happened would have surprised me.
I was working at the Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital for Rehabilitation, and the first inkling my office-mate Heidi and I had that something might be wrong was when a nurse came running down the hall saying, "They bombed the Pentagon!"
That wasn't quite true, but close enough. First came news of the World Trade Center being hit, then being hit again, then a tower collapsing, then the other tower following suit. Then reports of a plane crashing into the Pentagon, which I recall it took a while to confirm.
Then came rumors that a plane may be headed for Cleveland. In truth, the plane flew over Cleveland and eventually crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
If you didn't experience it, you have to understand how all of these events happened one on top of the other. Bad news followed by bad news.
After a short time, we would have believed almost anything.
Offices in Downtown Cleveland closed in case the city really was being targeted (no one knew for sure), and I think they eventually shut down our hospital, too.
Rumors were that the price of gas might triple or worse, so my family and I waited in a long line at a local Shell station that evening to get gas in our minivan before the jump, which never actually occurred.
The entire U.S. air traffic system was shut down. No one could fly in and out of anywhere for a few days.
That night we attended a prayer service at our church. There was a lot of emotion, but also a stoic courage in the eyes of fellow believers that I'll never forget. Jesus could have returned to earth and I wouldn't have been shocked.
Eventually life returned to something resembling normal, though it seemed to take weeks and weeks, and the world hasn't been quite the same to me since.
It was, I suppose, my generation's "Where Were You When JFK Was Shot?" moment.
I would be interested to hear your memories of that day, either in the blog comments below, on Facebook, or through a Twitter response. Even 14 years later, I think there's some a degree of healing when we share our individual experiences.
I experienced both...and can describe very vividly with this old forgetful brain where I was and what I was doing when JFK was shot along with where I was and what I was doing on 9-11.
ReplyDeleteI was at work at Ohio Bell Telephone Company, found out about JFK by way of customer's calls coming into the office. Tears flowed gently as it was confirmed to be true. As we continued to work helping customers as they ordered phones, called in to shut off phones, made arrangements for a move. etc. more time was spent that day talking to each of them about what happened rather than the main reason for their call into us. One very vivid memory echoes in my mind....and touches my soul....so often yet today. A co-worker, a black girl who shared the same name as me, through tears, looked at me and said, "Oh, Patti, what if ...and then she paused and said ...Please, please, God, don't let it be a black man that killed our President". We silently hugged, the kind of hug I call a "Jesus hug' where you can feel that pure, unconditional love throughout your being....and then went back to answering phones.
On 9-11, I was here at home. Got a phone call from my daughter asking if I had TV on. I turned it on and stood silent as I watched all that unfolded after the first tower was hit. My daughter was in panic mode since one of her brothers, Bryan, lived in NYC. Trying to contact him was futile. My neighbor called me and asked if I was going to go get Katie from school and I told her no, she was better off in school and was safe. I also told her that more was to come....and within a few minutes the second tower was hit. She asked how I knew this, I said it was just a feeling. She asked if it was over now, I said no. The feeling remained with me and then the Pentagon was hit. The feeling left me after the crash in PA. As I watched what was happening, one thing kept going through my mind....'Father, forgive them, they know not what they do".....don't know where that thought came from or why it came to me. Outside that day, it became so eerily quiet.
Those are two amazing stories, Patti. Incredible that you had to live through both of these events. Your perspective is wonderful.
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