I was working in Annapolis MD, just as I do now. My boss called at 840 to say she wasn’t coming in and while we were on the phone, she screamed..”Oh my God, someone just flew a plane into the tower” I told her she had to be kidding me, and that obviously it was a mistake, an accident. A few minutes later, she told me another plane had hit the other tower. I have never heard the outright hysteria in a person’s voice as I heard in hers that day. She seemed to know the horror that would be visiting in the next day or so.

When the plane crashed into the Pentagon, my boss called back. Her father-in-law worked in that wing of the building, and she couldn’t reach him by phone…either land line or cell. It turned out he was okay, but the few hours they couldn’t find him are some I’ll never forget. He called my office, and I remember telling him how happy I was he had called because no one had been able to reach him. I remember crying while he was on the phone, this man I’d never met.

I didn’t lose anyone I was close to, but my friend’s husband lost his mom in the Towers. To everyone who did lose a loved one, I send my love.