Remembrance – 10 Years Ago Today

It’s hard to believe that 10 years ago today this image was live TV.  We had just bought our home in Western WA and I was home alone with our brand new baby boy.  We didn’t have a TV hooked up and all of our belongings were in boxes.  I can remember as if it was yesterday, my cell phone rang and it was my husband calling from work.  His voice sounded empty and shaken.  He told me he was asked to leave work and was coming home and that I should locate a radio quickly to listen to the news.  He told me what had happened in a quick matter of fact manner and then hung up.  I sat there in my empty kitchen for a minute trying to absorb it all then scurried off to find a radio among the sea of boxes.

Reflecting back on the events of 9/11 brings back a flood of emotions.  The helplessness that I felt that day listening to a tiny clock radio in my empty kitchen.  The worry for innocent Americans who were losing their lives as the death toll kept rising with each new report.  The fear of the unknown as reports came in of new locations where planes were crashing.  The empty feeling in my gut as a commercial airliner would pass overhead.  It’s all still clear as if watching a movie in my head.

Today my husband said to me “I’m shocked they haven’t made this day a National Holiday”.  I have to agree.  Why haven’t we?  We honor the memory of the innocent victims.  We salute the brave men and women who helped pull people from the wreckage.  So why shouldn’t today be a day of remembrance forever….a Nationally recognized day of remembrance?  Who knows, maybe someday soon it will be.  But for now, we all share our stories with each other of where we were that horrible September day and we thank the men and women who help keep our country free with a salute and by hanging our American flag.

Today I’d like to say Thank You – thank you to anyone who has served or is serving in our countries military.  Thank you to anyone who is a policeman or fireman.  Without YOU, who knows what kind of country we’d be living in.