11 September 2006

September 11

I am not going to dedicate a poem or a tribute, because lots of people far more talented than I have done that so much better.

No, all I am going to tell you is how it affected me personally. I remember waking that morning to the radio alarm with John Howard speaking from Washington. I thought we were at war and in a sense I guess we were. But I was unaware of the extent to which that war went.

I got up and had a shower. As I was cleaning my teeth after, my daughter came down the hallway and I asked her if she had heard what John Howard had said. She informed me she had been up all night watching the TV because a plane had flown into the World Trade Centre. I went into the loungeroom with her and together we watched the second plane plough into the South Tower. I really thought it was something that Stephen Spielberg had thought up because my mind could not comprehend what I was actually seeing. How could anything of this magnitude be actually real? Then the towers collapsed. It was horror upon horror.

I had started a new job on the Monday and as I drove to work on that awful day, I was listening to the radio and crying. People were driving towards me with their lights on and honking their car horns as a mark of recognition and respect of what had happened. I turned my lights on and honked the car horn in return. Even though we were driving in opposite directions and were strangers to one another, we were united in our grief.

My new job was in the city. The building is on a hill and we are on the seventh floor. There is a plane that flies over our building, coming in to land at 9 am every morning. That morning, to me, it seemed extra loud and lower than usual and I can recall the horror I felt as I recalled the images I had seen earlier. My boss came in and asked me how I was going and I couldn't answer him because of my distress.

September 11 2001 - we will never forget that infamous day, the lives that were lost and the effect it has had on the world. Rest in peace.

6 comments:

Lee said...

I'll never forget September, 11th 2001. I'd switched on the TV just minutes after the first plane had struck. From that moment on I felt removed from my body...outside looking in. I never slept that night...I was glued to my TV screen unable to take my eyes off the horror happening on the other side of the world, realising our lives would never be the same again. I showered and went into work around 5am...I couldn't relax...I was cheffing at the time and my bosses lived on a cottage on the property. I woke them up, telling them to put on their television. They thought I'd gone out of my mind at that hour of the morning.

I shed many tears then and through the days and weeks following. I still well up when remembering the horror...I can't watch the replays and movies that are presently being played. It's all very clear in my mind...I don't need to watch them.

Pear tree cottage! said...

your post as important as the next! and your a very caring and loving person I can tell.

this was a nice post.
Lee-ann

rel said...

Robyn,
As I watched, I felt as you did: this must be an accident or a movie pilot, but as the 2nd plane flew into the tower, the realiztion of this being real paralized me. I couldn't grsp the horrendous wrong that was unfolding.
There are more of us than there are of them, but for now they're making more noise.
Thank you for sharing.
rel

Carole Burant said...

I remember every second of that day too...I was glued to the television for days and I cried alongside everyone else. It seemed like a horrible nightmare...one which turned out to be very real. I worried about my son in Toronto who works in the city...they were on high alert. It's a day no one will ever forget.

Janice Seagraves said...

Hi Robyn,

That you for post on my Blog Lady Jan's home on the 9-11 tragity. I've already posted my final thoughts on my comments roll.

I'll never forget it either, or the sonic booms that follow for the next week as the air force flew over heads, but I was glad for the air force as it made me feel a bit safer.

Janice~

TJ said...

I remember the same feelings when a plane sounds like it is flying too low...for a full year I was very jumpy and I was nowhere near New York...girl...I just wanted to stop by and thank you so much for being a great friend to me in the past few weeks...I am feeling some better today and decided to make a few blogs...
(((hugs))) and thanks!!