What I Remember...

I didn't want to post this on a day that is so difficult for so many people for so many different reasons. So I waited a minute.

I first heard about the planes hitting the twin towers after both had been hit. Son-in-law called me (he was Daughter's boyfriend then). He told me to turn on the TV.

I told him "No", I was too busy. At the time, I did not watched TV. The only available TV was in Youngest Son's bedroom, and all that came in was whatever network had Dan Rather, and frankly, I'd Rather-not.

But, he INSISTED that I turn on the TV. So, I did.

I watched a bit, but I WAS busy. I had to make it to a city office building with a payment as soon as it opened. And, I could not find the checkbook. I was hunting for it, and yelling at THGGM in my head for not getting the payment on time, and for not knowing where the checkbook was.

I found a new pad of checks and headed out. I was listening to the radio when the report came on that the pentagon had smoke rising from it. The city office building was somber. But, I got my payment in on time.

As I drove home, I passed Youngest Son's school. The thought occurred to me to go there and bring him home. I wish I would have.

When I got home, THGGM called. He was a driver for FedEx at the time, and found out about the attacks while making deliveries along the lake shore. Every stop, more news footage to watch. I apologized to him for yelling at him in my head.

Like everyone else, I wanted to know where my family was. I called Daughter in her dorm. She said she knew something was up, but she was too busy to stop what she was doing to notice what. She said if she saw Oldest Son she would have him call home.

Dan Rather was making me Rather mad. So, I went to my mom and dad's house, where my dad was flipping through all of the cable news channels, trying to figure out what was going on. I watched with them for awhile. Not so much to see the news, but I had this need to be with them. I stayed for about an hour and then went back home.

Youngest Son's girl friend du jour came over. She and I watched the news together in Youngest Son's messy bedroom. Many of her school friends had father's who were working in NYC and were waiting to hear from them. Son-in-law's father was working in NYC also. He watched it all unfold from across the river in New Jersey.

Youngest Son arrived home. He found out about it when one of his teachers got a phone call from his wife. All it said was "We are okay. We're stranded at Logan, but we are okay." The teacher had no idea what she meant. It took a bit to sort it out.

One of the 'we' was my friend Pat. She and her daughter were heading home from a vacation. They had an early morning flight from Boston's Logan Airport. It never got off the ground. She and her daughter (youngest son's teacher's wife) spent some tense moments on the grounded plane while passengers spread the news as they got it over cell phones.

That night our church was open. All who could gathered to pray.