Remembering September 11th - 21 Years Later

byKarenJulie63

329 followers

3 years ago

It's hard to believe that 21 years have passed since the events of 9/11. We all remember where we were and what we were doing when news of the terrorist attacks in New York came out.

I was at work that day, meter reading in the town of Ware, about 6 miles from my home. Every house that I went into to read the electricity meter had the television on, and instead of the usual daytime fodder of chat shows, quizzes and soap operas, it seemed that everyone was watching the same disaster movie. I thought this was a bit strange.

After noticing this in more than a dozen homes, I asked one family what movie they were watching. A woman turned to me, her face pale and shocked, and said "It's not a film, love, it's real. Some terrorists have flown a plane into the World Trade Centre."

I promptly sat down on their sofa without being asked and stared in horror at the scenes unfolding on the television screen. Work was forgotten completely when I saw people jumping from the crippled towers. I just couldn't comprehend what I was seeing.

By this time, it was mid-afternoon in England, so it was a couple of hours after the attack in New York City. And then the first tower started to collapse. Those images are etched on my mind; for as long as I live, I will never forget what I saw that day. Or how I felt.

I managed to finish my work and then hurried home, switching on the TV without even pausing to make a cup of tea. And there I stayed, glued to the news, unable to function. All that I could think about was how frightened those people must've been when the planes hit the towers. What were their last thoughts? Sorrow for the victims and their families kept me awake most of that night.

The next day, I was back in Ware and I asked to use a customer's bathroom. It was okay until I tried to turn the key to unlock the door and leave. The key snapped off in my hand! The lady had to call her builder, who asked me to push the 2 halves of the key under the door so that he could go into town and get a new one made.

Meanwhile, the lady passed me a cup of coffee and a newspaper through the bathroom window (it was downstairs, fortunately) and I read the stories of what had happened in New York, tears running down my cheeks and my coffee going cold, forgotten. Those poor, poor people.

I didn't know any of the victims of 9/11, and I'm not an American, but I grieved for those people as if they were my friends. And I was outraged at the perpetrators of the attack. How could they have done it? I just couldn't understand the depths of their hatred for the American people, it made no sense.

Now, 21 years on, the victims of this terror attack are still remembered. Husbands, wives, sons and daughters, mums and dads. Their lives mattered then and they still matter now. We should never forget them. The people who were working in the towers, the emergency services, the rescue workers. They were victims of something that can never be explained or understood.

They say that time is a healer. But I'm sure for the families and friends of the 9/11 victims time has not healed all of their wounds. There are some cuts that run too deep to ever fully heal.

God bless them all, and God bless America. Stand strong.