Not sure how I’m going to be able to handle all the 9/11 stuff this weekend.
My parents still lived in DC when it happened. Thankfully Dad wasn’t at the Pentagon that day. I couldn’t get in touch with Mom to make sure they were okay-all the phone lines were jammed-couldn’t get her on her cell. I remember being so shaken I couldn’t figure out how to turn on my cell to call her. One of the doctors I worked with turned it on and found her name in the contacts list for me.
Our news at work was pretty sketchy because someone in admin decided we had to turn all the TVs in the clinic off even though there were no patients there-they all stayed home. We watched snippets of CNN coverage on the computers-doctors, nurses, PSRs, plant ops, all of us huddled around monitors trying to figure it out. Several of us with friends and families in NYC and DC trying to call to make sure they were safe.
One of my sisters and her family lived in the Middle East at that time. It was a couple of days before we heard from them. Thankfully there were all okay.Their Muslim friends there gathered around them and supported them, as outraged at the violence as we were.
I remember going to church the Sunday after and having to leave before the service started because they were playing news footage of the destruction on the screen in the sanctuary. I still can’t watch it-NY, DC, or PA. I can’t use the phrase “Let’s roll” in conversation.
Ten years later it’s still one of the most surreal events of my life.
Colletts on the Move 