One Year On Sepetmber 11 2002
Can
you believe that it is almost a year since the September
11 2001? The night and the images will stay with me
in my heart and mind forever. The Boy and I were watching
West Wing on Television at about 11pm. Sitting on our
sofas with our computers on our laps as per normal,
chattering with each other about work, our upcoming
holiday and just stuff. A thoroughly normal Tuesday
night for us with the expectation of a busy but uneventful
Wednesday at work.
A commercial break came and we both went back to our
computers, but then in the background, "Unconfirmed
reports from New York suggest that a passenger jet has
crashed into one of the twin World Trade Centre Towers
.".
Instantly we look up from what we were doing and saw
the footage of smoke billowing from the top of one of
the towers. We turned white watching and listening to
the fragments of information they had. Work was forgotten
as we struggled to understand what was happening with
so little information being available. Then as one of
the news presenters was talking about the "accident"
we saw the second plane come in low across the skyline
of New York.
Our faces turned white and we sat together on the sofa
staring in disbelief not quite believing what was happening.
The plane banked and hit the building, a wild orange
flash and the news commentator gasped in horror his
voice rising in a panic.
This wasn't an accident this was real this was an attack
and suddenly the world seemed a very cold and scary
place. We watched trying hard not to cry as the images
of the explosions continued.
We switched channels trying to find more information
and saw a news report of smoke from the pentagon. A
camera from miles away was tracking the rising smoke.
There was an announcement that at least one other maybe
more aircraft were unaccounted for, where were they?
What were they doing?
We asked each other if this was the beginning of a
world wide attack? Would Sydney be next, what other
parts of the world were going to be so callously attacked?
The footage took us back to Twin Towers, and we sat
there discussing what would happen to the towers, could
they survive? How many people worked in them? How many
people could get out? Just how big where they?
Then the unthinkable happened, as one of the news presenters
was talking we watched as the top of the first tower
hit moved and the collapse started. Ten seconds of horror
as eight years of building was wiped out hundreds, thousands
were killed. We sat horrified, shaking not quite understanding
what how or why.
We didn't say much we just watched as the dust cloud
enveloped New York. Then a short time later Tower Two
came down as well.
We sat there most of the night watching, frightened,
sad, confused and bewildered. The next day we went to
work as usual, looking at the buildings around us in
our small city wondering, worried and sad.
People were different that day, no one smiled no one
laughed we just talked about what had happened and what
it meant to us. At my company we heard that one of our
staff's best man at his wedding was missing from Tower
Two, presumed Dead.
The Boy heard that the head of one of the divisions
of his major partner company was on the flight that
slammed into Tower Two, strangely enough into his own
office. The rest of the employees had escaped after
the first plane hit. At first they thought all their
employees were safe, but then they heard.
We watched the day after as the head of Cantor Fitzgerald
broke down on television talking about how he was late
getting to his office where no one survived. His friends,
his life almost gone.
Musical Tributes
I am a big fan of music and I have found two of the
most hanuting and beuatiful tributes to the disaster:
Merry Christmas Angel
One Voice
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