We Will Always Remember

Today is a day of remembrance. Today is the day a group of callous, selfish, misled individuals took the lives of thousands of innocent people for the sake of a political move.  Today we need to sit and reflect on the events that took place twelve years ago. The people of all races, nationalities, and creeds whose lives were so mercilessly cut short.

There has always been controversy surrounding this day twelve years ago. Some argue terrorists, some say it was an inside job. Instead of focusing on the controversy surrounding this date, try to think about the lives lost. Look at those you know who share this tragic day as their birthdays and try to make it a happy one for the little ones too young to understand why everyone is so sad.

Explain to the older children what happened and why today should be a day to remember the families that are hurting even after all these years.

I’m a native New Yorker. I grew up in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn in the ghetto. I was in Bensonhurst when it happened. I remember I was bsing on AOL, with my oldest sitting on my lap. I worked the night shift at K-Mart at Caesar’s Bay  back then so I really shouldn’t have even been up, but my dad and my step mom were at work and my oldest wasn’t in day care yet. I remember turning on the tv getting ready to watch some Springer. But Jerry never came on. Instead it the news. I looked at the tv and I saw the North Tower covered in smoke. I was still half asleep and didn’t understand what I was seeing or hearing. Then it registered. They said we’d been attacked in our own backyard. Hit in a place that would kill so many innocent people.

I don’t even remember when I started crying as I held my oldest close to me. All transportation was shut down, trains, buses, everything. My dad was a bus driver. My step mother worked in Manhattan, so did a large amount of my friends. I was a nervous wreck. I didn’t even hear my dad come home. I was glued to the tv watching and listening as planes seemed to go rogue all over the north east of the country. We couldn’t get in touch with my step mother. There were so many calls being made to 911 that virtually all the cell phones and phone lines were useless, no one could get through the clog.

I sat and worried with my dad while we watched the death toll rise and the towers begin to crumble. Landmarks I had seen in person, on tv, and in movies my entire life were suddenly just not there anymore. Then they told us about bombs going off in Grand Central Station which ran beneath the towers. I don’t think I’ve ever been more afraid of anything in my entire life.

It was really late when my step mom got home. And while my step mom and me didn’t always see eye to eye I was so happy she was okay. I hugged her so tight and I cried even harder. She told us because they shut down all the transportation to and from the city that the survivors had to walk home over the bridges. Not even cars were allowed to go in and out of the city. The island of Manhattan was cut off from the world by that point.

K-Mart closed its doors that afternoon so I didn’t have work. My dad and step mom had so many phone calls come in to find out if they were okay and to make sure we were all accounted for. They made a ton of the same phone calls to their friends and other family members but not every phone call they made was as good as the ones made to us.

I will remember this day for the rest of my life. This is the day that I not only lost so many friends, but it’s also the day I grew up. I may have been two months shy of twenty-one when it happened, but it really made me grow up. I stopped fighting with my step mom after that. We still had our silly little quarrels and whatnot, but I didn’t not like her anymore. I didn’t not respect her anymore. I saw her for the person she really is.  She is my mom even if it’s not by blood and I love her and thank the gods that I didn’t lose her before I woke up and realized that.

To all the families that were not as fortunate as mine, I pray you someday find closure. I pray you find peace in your hearts to keep you from the pain. I pray you learn to see this day as a day celebrate the lives your loved ones led and not the day they went away. May the gods smile on you all and bring you joy and love until you can see your loved ones again

So mote it be