Where Were You?

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Nine years ago yesterday the world changed.  I had just moved back to Seattle from St. Louis.  I was staying with a friend of mine, and had a job interview that day.  I got up that morning, turned on the news, and saw the news coverage.  I was in shock.  How could that happen?  Here, in the United States?  This is surely a very terrible dream. 

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I was glued to the television coverage.  My friend I was staying with got up, and we watched together.  Tears streaming down our faces.  I called my mom, my dad, my brothers.  "Did you see?  I can't believe it.  I'm in shock!"  I told them I loved them, was glad we were all at home, or work.  Safe.  So happy my family was safe.  I eventually pulled myself away from the news coverage.  I had an interview to get ready for.  I went to my interview.  As I waited in the lobby of the company I was interviewing with, I watched the coverage more on a television they wheeled out, as other employees gathered around to watch.  The interview wasn't my best.  My mind was elsewhere.  I couldn't stop thinking about all those people that lost their lives.  All the families that affected. 

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After the failed interview, I met up with another friend of mine.  I felt like I needed to be around my loved ones.  We wandered around the Freemont area of Seattle.  Most of the shops were all closed.  Shop owners deciding they also needed to be home with their loved ones. 

We weren't thinking, and forgot our camera.  Please excuse the not so great iPhone photos

Nine years have gone by, and I can still remember every detail of that day.  Yesterday evening, Sam & I met up with our friends, Monica & Shawn.  We went to the Healing Field at the Tempe Beach Park.  We walked around the nearly 3000 flags that were displayed.  On each flag, a card was was attached, listing the name, age & a brief bio of someone that died as a result of the attacks.  We read about a man who was overseeing his office in the World Trade Center close.  They were scheduled to move out of the office two days after the attack.  He just happened to stop by that day.  We read about  a grandma, who was the "cool" grandma.  Teaching her grandchildren to gamble.  We read about victims as young as 22, and as old as 76.  I was choked up while reading each card.  The families that were left behind, the lives that were cut short.  It was a touching, and very memorable experience.  Where were you on 9/11/01?