Remembering 9/11

Can you believe its been 5 years?

I found myself watching a program on the Discovery channel last week. I told myself to turn it off and within 4 minutes was crying hard. I know I will never forget that day - I remember everything like as if it were last month. But in so many ways it seems like a lifetime ago. FYI - three months after 9/11 I was pregnant with Zoey. There have been studies that show there was a population spike in the months following Sept 11th.

We were in SF at the time, a country apart from NY, but so much of SF is NYC's twin. As a stockbroker, now husband went to work before dawn to be at his desk when the market opened at 9am. Just about every brokerage had an office in the WTC. In his office (UBS at the time) there was a squawkbox that was a direct feed from the trading floor in NY (not in WTC but down the street). When the announcer in NY spoke in the box, it transmitted directly to the other UBS office in the country. That morning as he was sitting at his desk, the voice on the box started "screaming the tower has been hit repeat the tower has been hit. A plane just hit the world trade center". This narrative continued throughout the attack to tell the story of what was happening in NY and DC. And of course we all watched it on TVs worldwide. How strange is that - we watched it happen live on Television. This is the world that I brought children into - where we can watch such horrific violent acts of terrorism on tv...live?? I know this happens in other countries, I see it on the news. But I didn't chose to live in one of those countries - I wanted to live in this one. The land of the free, home of the brave. The glorious USA. On that day, we were not.

However, that day is also a testament to that very statement - the home of the brave. The number of heroic stories from 9/11 abounds tenfold. From the story of Flight 93 to the story of two guys they showed on the program that saved 50 or more people in the towers but died himself. And of course to the firefighters. The stories of firefighters going in the towers and up the stairs as people are fleeing the building. After the south tower fell. Knowing that that building could fall too and did. There is one story in particular that I wanted to share. You might have heard it already.

A small company of firefighters were in the north tower when the south tower fell. They were on floor 27 and against orders the captain ordered his men to leave the building. So the capt and his men began to leave. Quickly. Along the way in the stairs they met Josephine an older woman (60s I think). She needed assistance down. And so the whole company helped her down - together they stayed as a group. People are fleeing around them and these guys are hanging back to help this one woman. Around the 4th floor, she sat down. She needed a rest. One of the firefighters said it took every bone in his body to keep from screaming at her to keep moving. But they all sat down with her. It was during this time that the north tower collapsed AROUND them. Literally the floors beneath them were the miniscule pieces of debris and above them around level 6 or so was the rest of the debris. IF Josephine hadn't sat down and these men hadn't stayed with her, they wouldn't have survived collapse. Somehow they were safe in this little cocoon in their stairwell on the 4th floor all because of an elderly woman named Josephine. It took 5 hours for the rescuers to get them out - but they did and they survived. Basically unharmed. I read about this story shortly after 9/11. I'm not one to preach about God or even share my own beliefs. But I feel strogly about this, that was God's miracle. I believe he gave us that story on purpose. As almost a phoenix in such flames. To show that hope was still alive on a day when so much else was lost and gone. The darkest day the darkest hour that this country will hopefully ever see. In the days after 9/11 when I was so confused and scared about our future. I clung to that story as evidence that there is a God or higher power or other existence in our world. And that was a sign to us to keep hope, faith, and love alive. Can science really and truly explain how those people survived? 100 story skyscraper fell around them....think about it.

Peace and love, and never forget....