9/11

Colleen's post about 9/11 has prompted me to add a little note on my own blog. To this point I have done my best to ignore the anniversary because the thought of all those families losing the ones they love is just too sad for me to contemplate. I still cannot and will not put myself through watching any of the memorial programs but here I can leave some of my memories of that day and the months that followed.

On that terrible morning ten years ago, I was home from work. Called in "sick" probably. I remember being told that a plane crashed into the world trade center in New York but was truthfully completely oblivious to what that building was and why it was so tragic. By the time I crawled out of bed, the second tower had been hit and shortly there after they collapsed. The office closed for the day, just in case.

In the weeks to come, I was surrounded by the immense outpouring of American pride and constant cries of "why us?". As a foreigner, I was very distanced from that opinion and could easily understand why. It was not until several weeks after the event as I was listening to some of the statistics about how many people died and how that it finally hit home that this was a truly catastrophic attack.

I do remember very clearly the situation at the airport the Christmas immediately following the attacks. Lines were incredibly long (longer than I have ever seen since) and security was incredibly tight. There were armed guards stationed on walkways above all of the security lines and checkpoints which was a little unnerving and again something I have never seen since. I also remember that a lot of the people in line were scared to get on their flights for fear that there would be hijackers. My response was: I'm headed to Regina Saskatchewan. If there is a terrorist on my flight, he is on the wrong flight! I am not worried.

And as I'm sure you all know by now, there was no hijacker on my plane!!