In Rememberance

September 11, 2001, is one of those dates that you'll always remember where you were when it happened. For me, the space shuttle disaster, President Reagan getting shot, and Desert Storm are other ones. My parents say the same thing about John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and the first man on the moon.

On September 11, 2001, Rainbow was five days old and we had recently come home from the hospital. Taz was fifteen months old. He was just getting over an ear infection - he had to spend the night with Grandma and Pa Pa the first night Rainbow was home to give the antibiotics time to work.

The baby was so newly arrived that Scouter was still at home with us. We were wrapped in our little family cocoon when his boss called, asking if we could believe the news. We had no idea what he was talking about. He instructed us to turn on the TV and to call him back.

We flipped on the TV and watched the coverage in shock. At that point, the first plane had hit the Twin Towers. Soon thereafter, we watched the second plane hit in real time. And we continued to watch the rescue scene. I will never forget the popping sound of people jumping from the burning buildings. Then we watched the buildings collapse. The experience was horrifying and devastating.

I am starting to cry just recollecting that day and the ensuing days of coverage.

My college roommate Jill called later that afternoon. She works in the Financial District in New York and she saw the second plane hit from her window after co-workers reported the first. She said they thought the first small plane had gone way off course, but when they saw the second one, they knew immediately that it was terrorism.

She walked all the way to her then-home on the Upper East Side. It took her something like six hours and she had to stop to buy sneakers on the way. Her husband worked in one of the peripheral buildings that collapsed, but thank God he was out of town that day. She was freaked out when she called me, being in the middle of it like she was.

We all know people whose lives changed dramatically because of that day. Parents who lost children, spouses who lost spouses, children who lost parents, friends who lost friends. And it changed us all.

May we always remember how proud we were of our country in the aftermath and may we do all it takes to protect ourselves and our country forever more.