Thanks for bringing this up; I was beginning to wonder if AN would be silent about the 9/11 anniversary, though it would be hard to imagine since we are all so verbal about so many things!
I was "off' on that day, and received a call from a co-worker I didn't want to hear from or talk to. But, I had answered the phone so I did my best to hmm and uh-huh my way through the call so I could get off the line. Just before we hung up, she said "Isn't it awful about those people in New York?" I said, though not knowing to what she was referring, "Yeah...."
A little later, my curiosity was piqued, so I turned on the TV and.....was glued to it for the remainder of the day and evening. I did not know anyone who was involved in any way nor any relatives of those who were there and/or affected personally .
The next day I saw a photo on the front page of a newspaper; someone had caught a bloom of flames immediately after one of the crashes, and as I looked at it closer, I realized that the object I was seeing in that picture was that of a man's leg, from the knee down, with sneaker still intact on the foot. I have since searched for that photo ( don't remember what paper it was) but have been unable to locate it.
The more films and videos I saw of that day, the more I came to think that the ones who died immediatley that day were the "lucky" ones, never having known what hit them. Those who decided that it was better to die by leaping from the building rather than burn to death.....my heart sinks when I think of it, and when I saw the film where you heard, "thud", "thud", of the bodies hitting ground. OMG. And when the buildings collapsed I had a vivid picture in my mind of hundreds of screaming souls rising up in the flames and clouds.....
But the thing that affected me the most was the firemen and cops standing, helpless in the rubble while all those personal locators were chirping and beeping, each one belonging to a now dead responder.....I can't even explain what I felt...horror, sorrow, there was nothing I could do but feel the pain radiating from that scene. That sound is one of the most desolate, unconsolable things I have ever heard.
I pray for the souls of the lost and dead, and the lives of those whose loved ones are gone, and the brave ones who dedicated their lives that day and since then, to protect and serve, to stand up for all of us, and to protect our country. Their lives are so hard, yet it does not stop them. I am forever grateful.
I still occassionally watch some of the documentaries made of that day. My husband doesn't understand why I do.....I'm sort of paying hommage and 'not forgetting', I guess.