9-11-01 Started like any other day, I got up made coffee and gazed out the window of my company’s 17th floor apartment in NYC. I checked the soccer field and tennis courts below, some young people kicking a soccer ball, a couple warming up for a early morning tennis match. Then I looked up at the north tower of the World Trade Center towering above two blocks away, always an impressing sight.

I then left and walked to my office 15 blocks to the north on Hudson St. and started my daily routine.

Our secretary came in almost in tears and told us a plane had hit the WTC. We went to the street and stood in silence looking at the large black hole in the north tower, black smoke billowing from the upper floors. It didn’t seam real, like a scene from a movie, but I knew I wasn’t in a theater, and that many lives had been lost. I didn’t want to watch any more and went back up to the office, thinking how could such a terrible accident happen?

Then we heard of a second plane flying into the south tower. Soon both towers came down. We realized that terrorism was now not just what we see on the evening news. The sadness of loss of life increased 10 fold, then disbelief, confusion, anger, and fear. Enough said.

Our apartment building was not damaged but it would be another 3 weeks before we could return.

I camped at the office for a week before I could get a flight to Orlando and home with a new awareness of my many blessings, friends, family and loved ones. And prayers for those who lost so much that day.

God Bless us all.