Remembering 9/11...

Brynwood Needleworks - We Remember 9.11.01

When we moved to Florida from Wisconsin, Handsome actually came ahead of me by about three months. He moved into our rental home in June, and I came with our belongings (and the moving van) in September - of 2001.

I arrived in a typical Florida downpour on Thursday, September 6th and the van arrived Friday, September 7th. I remember that we spent much of the weekend unpacking boxes - and eating dinners in local restaurants.

When the weekend was over, we continued unpacking and Tuesday, September 11th was no different. Both of us had our noses in boxes when the telephone rang.

It was our dear friend, David - the reason we moved to the Sarasota area - on the other end. He asked if we were watching the television, and we told him that we were busy unpacking boxes. In a grave voice, he told Handsome, "You'd better turn on the tv, boy. We're under attack."

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Stunned, we turned on the tube and watched in disbelief as the reporters looped the images of the plane slamming into the first tower. Handsome and I sat next to each other on our sofa, holding hands, and crying as we forgot about pulling our possessions out of boxes, and watching the horrific images that filled the airwaves.

Our nephew worked on camera as a reporter for Fox News on Shepherd Smith's team. We worried about his safety. We called Handsome's brother who is Erik's dad. As many were running away from the towers, Erik was heading toward them to cover the events of the day. He was all right.

My cousin lived in Manhattan, so I called my aunt to see if she'd heard anything. We waited, worried, until we got an update from her much later that day.

We called family in Wisconsin and hearing their voices on the telephone somehow made us feel closer and more secure. 

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Every year, we relive the sadness, uncertainty and shared fear of that day. We think about how everyone treated strangers a little differently for weeks and months after that. We weren't in quite the hurry to go about our lives, isolated from each other. People were kinder. We made eye contact and smiled at each other. We came together as Americans against a common enemy.

As we remember the day America was attacked, perhaps we'll also remember to behave the way we did back then. We'll take time to contemplate who and what really matters. Rather than magnify our differences, we can come together in the spirit of patriotism and love (or at least tolerance) for our fellow man.

Perhaps we can stand united to honor all the lives that were lost that awful day.

God Bless America • We Will Never Forget