Where were you?

The anniversary comes around. Some people pause to remember, some don’t think about it. But like Pearl Harbor, the events of September 11, 2001, shook this nation and in a rare occasion, brought us together. For a short span of time, we all hung flags, we played patriotic music and we weren’t Democrats, Republicans or Independents. We were Americans.

Thousands of people lost their lives to the senseless violence and millions of people still miss those they lost. Their hearts broken from the sudden unexpected loss. A loss that could never be replaced. Unresolved because it didn’t make sense. They miss them today as much as they did yesterday.

The tragedy had the Senate, standing side by side singing God Bless America on the steps of the capital. Does anyone remember that?

We were saddened and outraged, we cried over the loss and held our breath over the heroic struggles. A plethora of emotions ran so rampant in this country that four days post after 9/11 started a stress ‘cold’ epidemic that swept through the nation inflicting more people than the Spanish Flu. Even our president coughed, sneezed and lost his voice. This was all the first week.

We were for a moment in time, one nation Under God, indivisible. But that didn’t last long …

We hugged our families, stayed home, and prayed. We felt enraged over what had happened and we vowed to not bow our heads.

I remember that day, those who were alive do and always will.

I had just gotten home from taking the twins to school when the phone rang. I was on the phone with my then husband as the second plane hit. I was on the phone with my friend, Don when the towers fell and the Pentagon was struck.

I’ll always remember exactly what I was doing and what I was told. “A plane just hit the twin tower, hurry, turn on the news.”

I’ll pause today to think of that day, to pray for the families that lost and for this country, that one day; we may be united again, only perhaps without the tragedy being the cause.

Where were you and what were you doing when you heard?