On 9/11 I was sitting in the traffic on a bus coming from Carteret, NJ (116 bus) heading to the Port Authority. With a full view of the twin towers, my friend Mo and I (secretaries of different law firms) were on our way to work. We saw the one tower burning and my instant words were “Mo, Windows on the World must have a fire (since it didn’t look more than a couple of windows at first) and then I uttered “we were supposed to go there with our little boy to celebrate our wedding anniversary on October 6th”. As we sat in traffic the fire spread and I then uttered “that isn’t a small fire”. We then proceeded through
the tunnel. We got into Port Authority and news surfaced of “two
planes colliding over the world trade center”. I had a gutt feeling of
concern but I was already running late for work and had to make a split-second decision to go home and forfeit a day out of work or go to work. Some commuters got on the bus and went home – everyone was silent in the Port Authority. Mo said “I’m going to work – NY will have the fire cleaned up by the time we go home”. I decided to walk to our offices on Sixth Avenue in good company with Mo. When I got
in the office I thought I had “news to share”. Instead, I was the one
receiving word at the office that “NY is under attack and if you can go
home – go…” which I did not get home that night until midnight and it was through the Path Trains to Jersey City and we had to wait for the NJ Tpk to open for my husband to get to me at my
mom’s in Bayonne. I still feel how stupid and nieve I was to “believe this could not be real” and I kick myself for not getting on the return bus back home. I will NEVER FORGET!

Grace Fusco
Carteret, NJ
I will NEVER forget
(we also lost 3 commuters from our bus 116 on 9/11)