I was on a business trip to Austria. I live in NYC with my wife and three kids. My wife was at work and my kids were in school, namely college, high school and grammar. school.

At about 2;50 or so Austrian time (8:50 NYC time)I decided that I will call the office in JFK and see if things were running smoothly. At first, I could not get through. After several attempts I final reached someone in the office and they immediately told me what was going on.

I was shocked but not surprised.

Since I was in a restaurant at that time, I asked them if they had a TV so that I can watch CNN. I went into a room and there were about fifteen to twenty other people watching TV.

As I was watching, I saw an airplane slam into one of the WTC towers. I thought I was watching a replay but it turned out to be the second plane.

I was flabbergasted.

To make a long story short. I finally was able to reach my family and find out that they were all OK.

My oldest daughter attended High School in The Bronx and since we live in Queens, she needed to take a bridge back home. Needless to say that it took forever for her to get home.

My son came home from college by car when I spoke with him he told me that jet fighters were flying over the house back and forth.

They told me about the vigils people were holding and how all the people in the neighborhood became one big family.

The next day, I went to Salzburg city center and every building that I saw had large long black flags flying from windows, roofs and towers.
Black flags are for “morning the dead” and everyone and everywhere people in Austria were in morning.

I took me seven days to get back home. Not a word was spoken during the eight hour flight and as we approached JFK Airport I saw the smoke coming from the WTC site. Reality just checked in. Live will never be the same after that day. Security is now on top of everyone’s list.

Pray for the people that lost their lives on that fateful September 11th.