Thursday, September 11, 2008

"Not a cloud in the sky."



It was a clear day here, too, and early when it began. I was already at work. As it unfolded, we gathered in groups and grew increasingly distraught. No, we wouldn't close; we did not want to ignite any panic beyond what was already spreading.

The TV was brought out in a conference room. We milled in and out, all of us in a daze. No one knew what to say, or do. We all tried to do our usual duties. A colleague and I had to go to another of our offices, ironically to finalize the satellite uplink we have with a Wall Street financial service. Few were on the road as we made our way there.

The city was eerily quiet and empty. Except for a pair a fighter jets out of Kirtland AFB that flew over when I was home for lunch, there was nothing. I had the radio on, and the TV. None of it made sense.

I have a blank space here; how did any of us get through that unspeakable horror? I only remember much later, when I was home for the day and finally connected to those I needed to hear from. Contacting my sister, thankfully not flying that day; learning my future brother-in-law, an airline captain, was stranded but safe in Kansas City; calling my closest friend, who had just moved to Texas by himself; e-mailing another close friend in Massachusetts, back and forth all night. At about 2:00 a.m. I saw a video of that first plane on a Spanish TV station and thought I had hallucinated it. Especially since I had no idea what they were saying. And especially when I never saw it again, or at least not for a long time. Time was blurred, so it's a little hard to remember some of the specifics.

But the rest of it, as clear as that day was.


~William's mom.
Photo courtesy of miragestudio7

9 comments:

  1. I remember. We are on the west coast so when the alarm went off it had all happened. My first reaction when they recapped was at such and such a time an airplane hit one of the WTC Towers and I thought: What kind of idiot hits the WTC? And then they said and 10 minutes later another airliner had hit the other tower... at which point it became very surreal.

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  2. That day still have extremely powerful feeling in my heart,
    I saw the history image at news....leaking again....

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  3. William's mom-
    I read your post and got chills.
    I was still a student at IA State University that day-classes weren't cancelled, but you could feel something in the air.

    It's something we'll never forget.

    Jennifer
    (Cyclone Cats Mom)

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  4. It all still seems so surreal and unbelievable.
    --Jasper

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  5. I watched it all unfold on TV. I was home sick with the shingles ( a very bad case I might add) and I can clearly remember being on the telephone with my husband and saying the tower is collasping, it's gone...in seconds our world as we knew it changed forever.

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  6. Yes it was a surreal day. Like you I worked all day, quietly just doing paperwork. Nothing made sense. I too had friends that might have been in harms way. Thankfully they were not.

    We won't ever forget.

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  7. William's Mom, this is especially poignant. My son lives in NYC now, and I haven't been able to even think of how I'd have felt if he'd been there then. It did all feel so surreal -- Tammara
    ------------------------
    William, I am going to all the blogs on our list to let you know that we are deleting "Les Trois Chats." Momma is too busy to let us blog anymore - she has had a hard time blogging for herself even. We are actually now Les Quatre Chats anyway as we added LOLA in June, who is a POOP and has put me to shame as the alpha cat around here... even though, yes, she's a GIRL. (I know, SO emasculating! I need a treat or twenty to comfort me...)

    We so enjoyed our time with all of you. Au revoir, mon ami, you and your Mom will be much missed.

    Moose

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  8. We posted the winning Dare and I Dare You to accept the challenge!
    Karl

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  9. It was surreal - that's the word. I was home on holiday and on that day and for some reason I put the TV on in the afternoon, which I never normally do. At first I thought I was watching a "disaster" movie but it gradually became apparent that it was real. I couldn't believe it yet I had to believe it. xxx

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Wowee meowee.