I was in English class. There was definitely a buzz in the room; everyone was talking about something, but I didn't know what it was. Then the teacher told us that two planes had been flown into the World Trade Center and another into the Pentagon. I couldn't even process what she was saying, it just seemed too crazy.
Many students got up and left the class to watch the news and learn more about what had happened. I wanted to do the same, but the teacher told us she would mark us absent if we did. Bitch. I wasn't exactly an A-student, and the main thing that kept my grades decent is that I rarely missed class, so I had to stay. (The time Liza and I got all the way on campus, right in front of our classroom and looked at each other and said, "Let's skip!" still makes me laugh. We jumped up and down and gave each other high-fives, it was funny. Ok, so you had to be there). I digress, once again.
Never could I have predicted that not only would our country go to war in result, or that eight years later it would still be going on, but that my brother would fight in that war.
Foster did two one-year duties in Iraq. The first time he went, I was OK. I think at that point I was oblivious to what was really going on. The second time he went though, I was a total mess. Pretty much every day I'd cry before work, once during work and then again at night. The thing that got me through was Foster's constant encouragement that everything was alright, even when I knew he was going through so much. As you can see from the picture, Foster is a jokester. He can make me laugh—like belly laugh, tears pouring from my eyes—at any moment. I have no doubt that his humor helped other soldiers on a day-to-day basis.
Let's take a moment today to think about and pray for the families who have soldiers overseas, and for the families who were not as lucky as mine, and lost a loved one in this war and on September 11, 2001.
What were you doing on September 11, 2001? Leave any comments or memories you have here!
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this is a really nice post Ellen.. becoming a soon-to-be military spouse, I really appreciate this post :)
ReplyDeleteand yes, it was good that Foster made it back home alright; I remember he had told me about him being deployed to iraq. i could just imagine how families feel about deployment, my fiance was also deployed at one time but he was sent to afghanistan though, and there really were very dangerous times when he was there.
So to those brave hearts and lost souls, May God bless them
I was driving to work at Bauer on the morning of 9/11/01 and I turned on the radio to Howard Stern and started hearing all this commotion and Howard kept saying "It's got to be a terrorist attack!" Then as I'm about to pass a hotel on Rt. 46 that blocked my view of the Towers, Stuttering John comes bursting in yelling "Another plane just hit the second tower!" On queue I pass the Howard Johnson's on RT.46 to reveal the World Trade Centers burning. It was so surreal. At first I thought it was one of Howard's skits but there it was in front of me. I got to Bauer and we the radio on and continually went into SID to watch the horror unfold on their TV. Sadly we watched the Towers collapse one by one in the SID office. The most poignant memory of the day was the wife and son of a former employee named Edgar came in to stay by his side because they were so frightened. That sticks in my mind the most. The looks in their eyes. After work I joined my sister and some friends in a bar and watched the footage over and over as we had quite a few beers and tried to make sense of what was happening. To all those lost that day and to all those lost in the violence that resulted from it, God Bless!
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked the post, O! :)
ReplyDeleteAnd Joe, I cannot even imagine being in or near the city when this all happened. I think the fact that I was so far away and didn't know anyone in the city at the time made it seem surreal to me. It's kind of crazy that just a few years later I moved to NYC!