13 years ago today we all remember where we were. It's a day marked with sadness for our country.
We all have our own story of that day. Personally, I was 6 months pregnant with my first baby, living in Pennsylvania and working for Rodale Publishing as a book designer.
I was at my desk checking email, drinking coffee while a Joanna, a co-worker of mine sat on my office mate's desk waiting for her arrival (which was always late!! Nothing's changed)
Tara walked in to our office and told us that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Towers.
She had heard it on the car radio. Of course, we all thought it was a horrible accident.
Minutes later I entered my boss's office for a meeting. An hour later, I came out of the bubble of my boss's office to find out the tragic news of what was really going on.
My husband called me at work and told me get home so we could be together.
I was terrified to leave my building. I was terrified to go anywhere.
But we all knew we should go home. Work closed early and I drove home.
Unable to comprehend what was going on, I just held onto my ever-growing baby belly and prayed.
13 years later, and it's like it happened yesterday.
My children were not born when this happened. They did not know about these horrible events until a few years ago. I tried to shelter them from it because it was and is so scary.
This morning, my 12 (almost 13 year old) son that had been in my belly in 2001 looked so old to me!
He sat with me in the car at the bus stop and for the first time, he asked me about my memory of 9/11.
Not what happened on 9/11, but how I felt on 9/11. He asked me if I was scared. Scared isn't even the beginning of the feeling we all had that day. Now living in NJ where I grew up, we are so close to NYC. At night on every Septemeber 11th, we can see the twin lights reaching toward the sky. I have friends that worked in the city and witnessed the events first hand. Many people in this area lost family and friends in the tower attacks.
THis morning, after my big kids went to school, I drove to the local grocery store. While I was standing looking at the cereals, a man my age was climbing a ladder and stocking the shelves. The manager came on the loud speaker and asked for a moment of silence in memory of the lives lost on this day, 13 years ago. Not a dry eye in the store. And the guy stocking the shelves looked at me, with tears running down his face and said, it's like it was yesterday. I agreed. You could hear the communal sigh, deep breaths, wiping of tears and getting back to what you were doing.
In memory of anyone that lost their life, family member, friend, we wish you peace today.
And this day also makes us all remember how lucky we are to have life and family and friends and babies and kids and pets. And alpacas :)
Happy 2nd birthday to Aponi, the alpaca.
Aponi is the daughter of Melody and was born on September 11th, 2 years ago!
She is named Aponi because as soon as she was born a butterfly landed on her.
The American Indian word for butterfly and new life is, Aponi. So that's her story :)
And Chase always yells at me when I point out Aponi. He insists that she's not A PONY...she's a paca!!!!! Always makes me laugh.
And 2 years ago on this day, baby boy Wade decided it was almost time to come out of his mom's belly! Wade will be 2 on Saturday :) Love that boy so much. Can't wait to celebrate!
