We were excited that day – busily packing for a trip to Israel. My husband was watching CNBC and cried out, “Come here! A plane crashed into the World Trade Center!”
We watched in horrified disbelief as another plane exploded into the second Tower.
In a stomach-wrenching cloud of smoke, the Towers collapsed. Then a third plane crashed into the Pentagon. Who? Why? My god! Was the entire country under attack?
Our adult children were living in suddenly perilous areas. I had to hear their voices, to warn them!
To our daughter in Boston, “Stay in the house! The news said one of the planes came from Boston.”
To our daughter in Washington, DC waiting for her husband to walk home from our nation’s capital, the city and its services shut down, “Call me the minute he arrives!”
To our son and daughter-in-law in Manhattan, “How far are you from the World Trade Center? Be careful!”
Motherly, but barely rational advice at a fearful time…and it was just the beginning.
We did go to Israel and experienced those weeks following 9/11 with Israeli friends who sorrowfully understood the impact of terrorism – a new word for us, a threat to Israel since the country’s inception.
We returned from Israel to an America that had irrevocably changed, to a profound sense of loss on many levels, a sense of loss which remains deeply heartfelt and hurtful now 12 years later.
Zicronam L’Bracha
We remember those who perished on that horrific day and those who were lost in the weeks and months that followed due to exposure to the toxic environment at Ground Zero.
May their memories be for a Blessing.
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