I am an RN, and was working night shift the night of Sept. 10th. I got home about 8 am, did a few chores, showered and went to bed as I had to work again that night.I made it a habit not to turn on the TV in the morning,as I would get involved watching something and not sleep. My younger son was a junior in HS, and my older son was a Freshman at the community college by our house, and they were at school.
About 11:45 am my older son got home and woke me up. “mom, turn on the TV, it’s like the start of world war three” He crawled in bed next to me and we watched live coverage until it was time for me to get up and ready to go to work.
I don’t personally know anyone who lived in NYC, and had never been there; but many of the nurses and staff on my unit were from there and still had family there.

Thankfully, it was a quiet night with no patients in labor, so we turned the TV on in a patient room and watched,prayed and waited. Cell phones would ring and my friends would get good news as loved ones were finally able to get thru on the phones to say they were safe; by 7am, there were still some unanswered calls. Luckily, none of my co-workers families had personal losses.

I was deeply affected by 9/11. I went in to a state of depression that haunts me to this day, and I don’t know why. I am sure watching endless hours of TV coverage did not help. I just know that I have a niggling of fear in the back of my mind, like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. After 10 years of therapy and medications, I am much better. In 2007 I went to NYC for the first time with some of my friends. The first place we went was ground Zero. All of us had tears running down our faces, not just my friends, but folks from all all over, even a group of Russian soldiers. That was my therapy breakthrough. I was not alone, just mourning for what used to be and for those personally affected by the events of that day.