Being very grateful

Date Submitted: 08/22/2002
Author Info: Brenda (South River, NJ - USA) 
Occupation: Other
Lived in NY on 9.11.01?: No
Knew someone who perished?: No

At 7:00am every morning I would come into my new job and do my usual. I didn’t know anyone very well cause I just started at my job a week earlier. This girl that I met Lisa, well we started on the same day and I found out that we live only 5 minutes from each and we both travel 30 minutes to work. Out of nowhere this other woman whose husband worked in the WTC got a call and all we both heard was “Is he alright”, “I’ll be home right away”. and with that she said that a plane went into the WTC. All of our first reactions were that it was an accident. Lisa got onto CNN news site and we were both astonished. I called my boyfriend and told him what had happened and he thought the same thing we did and accident. Then about 40 minutes later she refreash her screen and the second plane hit. Then we both looked at each other with this look of fear in our eyes. All I thought was that first, I didn’t even know this girl very well but at that moment I felt like I’ve known her for years and second, I don’t want to be here if this is war and I could die. I called my boyfriend a second time and told him that it’s no accident and our country was being attacked by terrorists. He didn’t believe me at first and then I heard on the loud speaker at his job that they had on the radio and that was all that was on was about the attack in NYC. Then out of nowhere the phone line went dead. I tried calling him back but no luck. Finally after 45 minutes he got back in touch with me and like I said before I could here in his voice FEAR. I told him if I leave I’ll try to get in touch with him and hung up. I went to see my boss and by the time I got to her cube she said that both towers collapsed. I just could believe it. I work about an hour away from NYC and we could see the smoke. After a while our company sent us all home cause noone knew what was going to happen. I tried to call my fiance and I couldn’t get through so I just left work. I was soo scared driving home thinking the world is coming to an end. I did about 90mph home and on all the radio stations was about the attack, I would look into the sky and I saw army helicopters and jet fighters. Finally I got home and got in touch with my boyfriend. He finally got to his sister’s and said he will be over in a little bit. My girlfriend Lisa on the other hand her father works in NYC and she was panic stricken at work and she emailed me when I got home to tell me that her father was fine. Thank God for that. My mother was out with my sister and I told her for the both of them to get their butts back to her house and that Jack would be with me. Jack finally came over and I just couldn’t sit so we decided to go to a local bar and get lunch and a drink. (We really needed the drink more than food.) Every TV in the bar had the news on. It’s funny but even now when we go in there if we see the people that were in there that day it’s kinda of like a closeness we share. It’s like we could still feel that pain we seen in each others eyes that day. That night we came home and we sat in the living room with my mother cause I could just tell she didn’t want to be alone. My father was already sleeping so we hung out with her. I was so afraid to go to bed thinking that I would never wake up. As I laid in bed I just thought to myself how grateful I am to still have my family and how so many lives were lost. I said to myself from that day on I will never take anything for granted and I will cherish every moment I have with my family. I could go on and on about what I was feeling but I will stop and just leave by say You don’t know what you’ve got till its gone so treasure everyday like it’s your last.

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