I always thought that I would title this article “How to go to New York with only $27….oh….and only have a passport for identification and survive Armageddon.” Believe it or not, it can be done. Although I am not sure I would recommend this approach to anyone, and I am fairly certain that the Travel Channel would not pick up this concept and begin a new television series.
They, the philosophers and pundits of the world, always say that you find an inner strength deep within yourself during a crisis and it is supposed to prepare you for something else in your life.…I don’t know - maybe….Here is my story:
I was working for a Big 4 accounting firm in Dallas providing international expatriate administration to our clients and as a senior expatriate representative I had been asked to go to New York to meet with one of our clients to brainstorm current processes and complete a gap analysis to improve service. My flight was the afternoon of Monday, September 10th – Dallas to Newark. No worries, except for the fact that I was again running late to catch a flight and if the traffic gods smiled upon me, I would get to the airport with about 20 minutes to spare, just enough time to get checked-in and get on the plane. I was driving out of downtown Dallas at a mere 80 mph trying to make up every minute of the 20 minutes I had lost by leaving the office late. Since I am a cheapskate, I decided I would leave my car at the Park and Fly and be dropped off at the door. All systems go – made up a few minutes – I was at the gate. I showed my passport for id, hopped on the plane and off to Newark I went.
The gods WERE watching over me! No crazy, “so what do you do for a living,” guy next to me on the plane. I had never been to the east coast before; I was left on the plane with three hours to paint a picture in my mind of what the concrete jungle called New York City might look like. As we descended, the plane came in over the Central Park area, which is not typical, but the plane had to be diverted due to thunderstorms in the DC area. I distinctly remember looking down and thinking, “This may not be so bad.” We landed at Newark without incident. As I went to get my rental car, I realized that in my haste to make up time in Dallas at the Park and Fly, my wallet had fallen out of my backpack. I had no drivers’ license, no credit cards, no money – in short – I was screwed! They would not rent a car to me with only a passport and believe it or not they make you have a drivers’ license to rent a car. After I stopped screaming at myself for being irresponsible, I quickly jumped on my cell phone and called my co-worker back in Dallas and had her book a cab with her credit card to pick me up at the Newark airport. My hotel had already been booked with my credit card; therefore, all I had to do was show id upon arrival. As I pondered aloud “this stinks,” I also started to laugh because if it could happen it would happen to me and won’t this be a great story to tell when I came home. My brain started kicking into overdrive as I devised a plan…if my wallet was still by my car, I could have my husband go pick it up and Fed-ex it to me in the morning. I would have it by Wednesday morning, again, no worries. I thought to myself who needs a back-up plan when you are so good off the cuff. After much cussing and discussing with my husband, he went to the Park and Fly and found my wallet lying on the ground outside of my car. Yes!!! Everything was falling into place, he would Fed-Ex my wallet Tuesday morning to the hotel and I would be good to go as soon as Wednesday. This trip was falling into place. With only $27 dollars shoved into the bottom of my backpack, I decided room service was the best way to go – add it to the bill and I would take care of it later when my wallet arrived.
Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001 – it was refreshing to wake up and have a crisp morning greet me. It was a far cry from the less than fall-like weather I had left in Texas. But I had no worries, the client contact picked me up around 7:15 a.m. and we were there by 8:30 a.m. I remember as we were driving into the city, I turned to the client and I said, “This is much prettier than I thought it was going to be….that is a beautiful skyline and my God can it get it better? Look, there is not a cloud in the sky this morning.” She said, “Yes, it can be very beautiful.” Either too distracted by traffic or incensed that she had been asked to chauffeur me back and forth; she opted not to engage in meaningful conversation about the beauty of the skyline and/or the meteorological phenomenon of a cloudless morning. Nevertheless, I thought to myself “wow, this city may have potential after all.” Upon arriving at the building, I had no clue that in less than 45 minutes Armageddon would descend upon the city in biblical proportions similar to what I had only heard in Sunday sermons as a child.
This is the part of my story where the events start happening as if someone was standing with camera and constantly hitting the flash button. It’s not a fluid state of mind, but bits and pieces flashed at me as if I had entered a haunted house designed to disorient all those who enter.
Flash - we were in conference room on the ground floor, with no windows, for our meeting. A less than composed woman opened the door and said “I think that you guys need to stop your meeting come upstairs.” Being a bit incensed, but curious as to why I was being asked to stop – I shook my head with the “this better be good” motion and we followed her upstairs to the lobby. I remember passing people who seemed as if they were talking about their vacations – I heard – New York, Washington, D.C. and I thought, “Good god, you live here why don’t you go somewhere else for vacation?” Of course it was later that I realized they weren’t talking about their vacations.
Flash - there is a mass of people standing around the receptionist’s desk looking at the television. I see the smoking World Trade Center towers on TV and I ask out loud to no one in particular, “does this happen a lot here – planes flying into buildings?” Someone responded, “Not planes this big!” Someone added, “Let’s go the cafeteria – you can see the towers from up there,” – so we went. It was as if we didn’t believe what we were seeing on television and if we saw it with our own eyes it would somehow help validate that this was really happening. It was an unbelievable amount of smoke that could be seen from our vantage point.
Flash - we are back downstairs looking at the towers on TV and that’s when the first tower collapsed. Gasps throughout the lobby followed by sobbing from men and women alike. At that moment, the fear of, my god – I might die today, came over me. I asked for the nearest phone and someone said – “don’t bother, the land lines are jammed.” I thought to myself, “Jammed my ass, I am going to find a phone and call home to tell someone that I am okay right now.” I quickly walked to the mailroom and I grabbed the phone. I called my mom and confirmed that I was okay. No time to talk, I had to try to make another call, but lines were busy. I couldn’t get through to my husband so I called my mother-in-law; I told her, “get a hold my husband and let him know that I am okay.” While I was on the telephone with her – the second tower collapsed.
Flash - I knew that my circuits were moving into overload and my survival instinct had kicked in. I needed to get out of there – I needed to get to a safe place. Minor detail – no car – how do I get out? Someone said, “I can take you back to your hotel, but we need to leave now.” You didn’t have to ask me twice, I grabbed my backpack and we headed for the door. I was completely unprepared as we walked out the front door. The noise was deafening – SIRENS - fire trucks, ambulances, police, and car alarms – there must have been hundreds of them and it was as if there was a contest of who could drown out the other and no one was winning so they just kept blaring. I realized that people are yelling to each other…”Good Luck – go, God Bless – go, Let me know when you get home – go”. It was the most surreal thing, and I don’t even remember getting into the car.
Flash - I knew that my circuits were moving into overload and my survival instinct had kicked in. I needed to get out of there – I needed to get to a safe place. Minor detail – no car – how do I get out? Someone said, “I can take you back to your hotel, but we need to leave now.” You didn’t have to ask me twice, I grabbed my backpack and we headed for the door. I was completely unprepared as we walked out the front door. The noise was deafening – SIRENS - fire trucks, ambulances, police, and car alarms – there must have been hundreds of them and it was as if there was a contest of who could drown out the other and no one was winning so they just kept blaring. I realized that people are yelling to each other…”Good Luck – go, God Bless – go, Let me know when you get home – go”. It was the most surreal thing, and I don’t even remember getting into the car.
Flash - The car I was in, along with everyone else who could drive were driving as fast as they could. Through residential areas, through parking lots – everyone was in survival mode, need to leave now and need to leave fast. Cars passed us like we are standing still and I know that we were going at least 80 mph. I looked at the faces of those drivers as they passed and they were frantic. They were determined and they all had tears rolling down their faces. We flew through the toll plaza – no time to pay – must get out. Hell, I don’t even know if there was anyone manning the booths anyway. As I turned around to look out the back window – I noticed that the beautiful skyline that was so worthy of commentary earlier that morning is no longer there – in its place is an angry, black plume of smoke which is getting wider and longer with every minute. I had hoped that it would diminish the further that we drove, but it didn’t. It was as if it was trying to say, don’t leave me! Don’t forget about me! Don’t you see me? I did see it and I was nauseous.
Flash - I was at the hotel and the first thing that I did was walk straight into the bar and ask for a shot of Tuaca. No Tuaca – great – “what do you have?” “Frangelica or hard whiskey,” the barkeep replied. “Give me the Frangelica.” I slammed it and noticed the bar was packed with people – its lunchtime where did all of the people come from? They were the ones who couldn’t get home, pulled over and decided to wait it out at the closest hotel. I went up to my room. I could see the black smoke from my window – I closed the drapes. I fell onto the bed and turned on the TV – and it was happening – it’s not a dream. According to the TV, all planes were grounded. I was nauseous – I went back to the bar – nothing like another shot to calm a puking gut.
Flash - I walked outside; I could not bear the thought of going back into my room. But this time when I walked outside, I was not met with the deafening sounds of sirens – I was met the deafening sounds of silence. There were no cars on the road, no birds, no wind , no overhead noise, no nothing and for a split second – I thought to myself…this is what it sounds like to be the one person left on earth. I walked around the hotel and the only sound that I heard was myself breathing and I was still amazed by the beautiful sky, except for the damn black smoke.
Flash – it was dusk and I had finally come to realize that I was trapped in hell with no id and only $27 dollars. I was sleeping with my clothes and shoes on because I was afraid that it was not over and then I heard them – planes in the sky – crap it was happening again and I panicked. The TV mentioned nothing about airplanes in the sky and I thought everything was grounded. I called home; I screamed and pleaded with my husband to get me out of there. There were planes in the sky….it was going to happen again. After he calmed me down, he told me that the planes in the sky were the National Guard and other fighters flying over the area to make sure that it wouldn’t happen again. I heard what he said, but I was not sure I was completely buying it. I went back to the original plan; I slept with my clothes and shoes on.
Flash - morning came without incident, except for the fact that I had tossed and turned with my shoes on all night; I didn’t do anything but watch TV and stare out the window at the smoke. Then it happened, it was something that will haunt me the rest of my life and I was nauseous. My hotel room window was in the same direction as the wind was blowing and on the outside of my window, collecting in the corners and across the bottom were ashes. Ashes from the building, ashes from the smoke, ashes from people who had died. The windows didn’t open so the ashes of dead people gathered at my window and as the day passed, more gathered.
I laid in the fetal position in the middle of the bed and drifted in and out of sleep for the remainder of the day.
Flash – it was Thursday and I walked to our sister office, which is about two miles away…I feel like I am being followed….I am….it is the damn smoke. I worked in order to have a distraction. There was nowhere to go – no planes were flying, buses were completely filled, trains were oversold and no rental cars to be had for hundreds of miles. I was a hostage in hell and I had to patiently wait until the gatekeeper decided it is okay to open the airports again.
Flash - it was Friday and there was a glimmer of hope that I might get out that evening. Hope was dashed as some yahoo breached security at the Newark airport and it was shut down again. Another day in hell and more people were gathering at my window…..I had to get out of there or I might have gone insane.
Flash – it was Saturday, the airport was open; however, all passengers were required to arrive 3 hours before departure. If it would have been 8 hours– I would have stood there. I entered the airport and I was met with the National Guardsman armed with rifles, police with guns and police dogs everywhere. No one spoke a word – the weary had lined up to go home and I was one of them. I still had the $27 dollars stashed in the bottom of my bag and I managed to remember that when a parent leaves on a trip – you have to bring home a gift – even if you have been to hell. I found two small demitasse cups with the skyline on it or should I say the old skyline on it…it fit in my limited budget and fulfilled the gift bearing role….I made my purchase and headed to the gate. There was so much speculation on the television of who could have done this to the US that those who would have never garnered an additional glance were those who were now met with long stares of trepidation. I found myself staring longer and making mental notes of passengers in case I needed to recall it later as evidence. Everyone became a suspect until we all boarded onto the plane and were seated. We were just a group of people trying to get to our safe places in life – our non-hell places that we had been in. I was sitting next to the window when two older women sat down next to me – they flashed a weary grin and we acknowledged through our smiles, “yes we are leaving and it will be over soon.” I welcomed their presence and I told them so. I also told them that there were two soap opera stars on the plane from All My Children and the gentleman in the row in front of us was one of them. Neither watched All My Children nor was truly impressed; however, they did find it humorous when I mentioned that should the plane go down, I would be jumping over the seat in order to plant a full mouth on mouth kiss with him before impact. A little levity, a quiet giggle – it was good medicine.
We landed without incident in Dallas and when the plane touched down – the entire plane erupted in applause for the Captain. There was no rushing to get out of the plane. There was a deliberate purpose to our exiting – we, each one of us, stopped to thank the Captain and the crew for our safe arrival….and if only for a moment the arrival in Dallas was, as if, we landed in the Garden of Eden.
The first anniversary was very difficult. Images, documentaries, commentaries, monologues, dialogues – puking. I wrote the following on the morning of the first anniversary:
Towers strong & steady
Glistening in the sunrise –
A stunning sight unseen before.
Towers smoking, sirens blaring;
Not a cloud in the sky.
Towers heaving and breathing
Last breaths
Steel falling
And souls rising
An eerie blanket of silence
Coldness on a warm day
Ashes of souls gather at my window – silently
Waiting for the tears of a nation to release them.
And a nation still grieves.
As the fifth anniversary arrives, I have written my story. To confirm, I am not sure I still understand why I was supposed to be there, but I have come to realize that like so many others on that day, I was just an ordinary per¬son, inserted into an extraordinary situation.
They, the philosophers and pundits of the world, always say that you find an inner strength deep within yourself during a crisis and it is supposed to prepare you for something else in your life.…I don’t know - maybe….Here is my story:
I was working for a Big 4 accounting firm in Dallas providing international expatriate administration to our clients and as a senior expatriate representative I had been asked to go to New York to meet with one of our clients to brainstorm current processes and complete a gap analysis to improve service. My flight was the afternoon of Monday, September 10th – Dallas to Newark. No worries, except for the fact that I was again running late to catch a flight and if the traffic gods smiled upon me, I would get to the airport with about 20 minutes to spare, just enough time to get checked-in and get on the plane. I was driving out of downtown Dallas at a mere 80 mph trying to make up every minute of the 20 minutes I had lost by leaving the office late. Since I am a cheapskate, I decided I would leave my car at the Park and Fly and be dropped off at the door. All systems go – made up a few minutes – I was at the gate. I showed my passport for id, hopped on the plane and off to Newark I went.
The gods WERE watching over me! No crazy, “so what do you do for a living,” guy next to me on the plane. I had never been to the east coast before; I was left on the plane with three hours to paint a picture in my mind of what the concrete jungle called New York City might look like. As we descended, the plane came in over the Central Park area, which is not typical, but the plane had to be diverted due to thunderstorms in the DC area. I distinctly remember looking down and thinking, “This may not be so bad.” We landed at Newark without incident. As I went to get my rental car, I realized that in my haste to make up time in Dallas at the Park and Fly, my wallet had fallen out of my backpack. I had no drivers’ license, no credit cards, no money – in short – I was screwed! They would not rent a car to me with only a passport and believe it or not they make you have a drivers’ license to rent a car. After I stopped screaming at myself for being irresponsible, I quickly jumped on my cell phone and called my co-worker back in Dallas and had her book a cab with her credit card to pick me up at the Newark airport. My hotel had already been booked with my credit card; therefore, all I had to do was show id upon arrival. As I pondered aloud “this stinks,” I also started to laugh because if it could happen it would happen to me and won’t this be a great story to tell when I came home. My brain started kicking into overdrive as I devised a plan…if my wallet was still by my car, I could have my husband go pick it up and Fed-ex it to me in the morning. I would have it by Wednesday morning, again, no worries. I thought to myself who needs a back-up plan when you are so good off the cuff. After much cussing and discussing with my husband, he went to the Park and Fly and found my wallet lying on the ground outside of my car. Yes!!! Everything was falling into place, he would Fed-Ex my wallet Tuesday morning to the hotel and I would be good to go as soon as Wednesday. This trip was falling into place. With only $27 dollars shoved into the bottom of my backpack, I decided room service was the best way to go – add it to the bill and I would take care of it later when my wallet arrived.
Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001 – it was refreshing to wake up and have a crisp morning greet me. It was a far cry from the less than fall-like weather I had left in Texas. But I had no worries, the client contact picked me up around 7:15 a.m. and we were there by 8:30 a.m. I remember as we were driving into the city, I turned to the client and I said, “This is much prettier than I thought it was going to be….that is a beautiful skyline and my God can it get it better? Look, there is not a cloud in the sky this morning.” She said, “Yes, it can be very beautiful.” Either too distracted by traffic or incensed that she had been asked to chauffeur me back and forth; she opted not to engage in meaningful conversation about the beauty of the skyline and/or the meteorological phenomenon of a cloudless morning. Nevertheless, I thought to myself “wow, this city may have potential after all.” Upon arriving at the building, I had no clue that in less than 45 minutes Armageddon would descend upon the city in biblical proportions similar to what I had only heard in Sunday sermons as a child.
This is the part of my story where the events start happening as if someone was standing with camera and constantly hitting the flash button. It’s not a fluid state of mind, but bits and pieces flashed at me as if I had entered a haunted house designed to disorient all those who enter.
Flash - we were in conference room on the ground floor, with no windows, for our meeting. A less than composed woman opened the door and said “I think that you guys need to stop your meeting come upstairs.” Being a bit incensed, but curious as to why I was being asked to stop – I shook my head with the “this better be good” motion and we followed her upstairs to the lobby. I remember passing people who seemed as if they were talking about their vacations – I heard – New York, Washington, D.C. and I thought, “Good god, you live here why don’t you go somewhere else for vacation?” Of course it was later that I realized they weren’t talking about their vacations.
Flash - there is a mass of people standing around the receptionist’s desk looking at the television. I see the smoking World Trade Center towers on TV and I ask out loud to no one in particular, “does this happen a lot here – planes flying into buildings?” Someone responded, “Not planes this big!” Someone added, “Let’s go the cafeteria – you can see the towers from up there,” – so we went. It was as if we didn’t believe what we were seeing on television and if we saw it with our own eyes it would somehow help validate that this was really happening. It was an unbelievable amount of smoke that could be seen from our vantage point.
Flash - we are back downstairs looking at the towers on TV and that’s when the first tower collapsed. Gasps throughout the lobby followed by sobbing from men and women alike. At that moment, the fear of, my god – I might die today, came over me. I asked for the nearest phone and someone said – “don’t bother, the land lines are jammed.” I thought to myself, “Jammed my ass, I am going to find a phone and call home to tell someone that I am okay right now.” I quickly walked to the mailroom and I grabbed the phone. I called my mom and confirmed that I was okay. No time to talk, I had to try to make another call, but lines were busy. I couldn’t get through to my husband so I called my mother-in-law; I told her, “get a hold my husband and let him know that I am okay.” While I was on the telephone with her – the second tower collapsed.
Flash - I knew that my circuits were moving into overload and my survival instinct had kicked in. I needed to get out of there – I needed to get to a safe place. Minor detail – no car – how do I get out? Someone said, “I can take you back to your hotel, but we need to leave now.” You didn’t have to ask me twice, I grabbed my backpack and we headed for the door. I was completely unprepared as we walked out the front door. The noise was deafening – SIRENS - fire trucks, ambulances, police, and car alarms – there must have been hundreds of them and it was as if there was a contest of who could drown out the other and no one was winning so they just kept blaring. I realized that people are yelling to each other…”Good Luck – go, God Bless – go, Let me know when you get home – go”. It was the most surreal thing, and I don’t even remember getting into the car.
Flash - I knew that my circuits were moving into overload and my survival instinct had kicked in. I needed to get out of there – I needed to get to a safe place. Minor detail – no car – how do I get out? Someone said, “I can take you back to your hotel, but we need to leave now.” You didn’t have to ask me twice, I grabbed my backpack and we headed for the door. I was completely unprepared as we walked out the front door. The noise was deafening – SIRENS - fire trucks, ambulances, police, and car alarms – there must have been hundreds of them and it was as if there was a contest of who could drown out the other and no one was winning so they just kept blaring. I realized that people are yelling to each other…”Good Luck – go, God Bless – go, Let me know when you get home – go”. It was the most surreal thing, and I don’t even remember getting into the car.
Flash - The car I was in, along with everyone else who could drive were driving as fast as they could. Through residential areas, through parking lots – everyone was in survival mode, need to leave now and need to leave fast. Cars passed us like we are standing still and I know that we were going at least 80 mph. I looked at the faces of those drivers as they passed and they were frantic. They were determined and they all had tears rolling down their faces. We flew through the toll plaza – no time to pay – must get out. Hell, I don’t even know if there was anyone manning the booths anyway. As I turned around to look out the back window – I noticed that the beautiful skyline that was so worthy of commentary earlier that morning is no longer there – in its place is an angry, black plume of smoke which is getting wider and longer with every minute. I had hoped that it would diminish the further that we drove, but it didn’t. It was as if it was trying to say, don’t leave me! Don’t forget about me! Don’t you see me? I did see it and I was nauseous.
Flash - I was at the hotel and the first thing that I did was walk straight into the bar and ask for a shot of Tuaca. No Tuaca – great – “what do you have?” “Frangelica or hard whiskey,” the barkeep replied. “Give me the Frangelica.” I slammed it and noticed the bar was packed with people – its lunchtime where did all of the people come from? They were the ones who couldn’t get home, pulled over and decided to wait it out at the closest hotel. I went up to my room. I could see the black smoke from my window – I closed the drapes. I fell onto the bed and turned on the TV – and it was happening – it’s not a dream. According to the TV, all planes were grounded. I was nauseous – I went back to the bar – nothing like another shot to calm a puking gut.
Flash - I walked outside; I could not bear the thought of going back into my room. But this time when I walked outside, I was not met with the deafening sounds of sirens – I was met the deafening sounds of silence. There were no cars on the road, no birds, no wind , no overhead noise, no nothing and for a split second – I thought to myself…this is what it sounds like to be the one person left on earth. I walked around the hotel and the only sound that I heard was myself breathing and I was still amazed by the beautiful sky, except for the damn black smoke.
Flash – it was dusk and I had finally come to realize that I was trapped in hell with no id and only $27 dollars. I was sleeping with my clothes and shoes on because I was afraid that it was not over and then I heard them – planes in the sky – crap it was happening again and I panicked. The TV mentioned nothing about airplanes in the sky and I thought everything was grounded. I called home; I screamed and pleaded with my husband to get me out of there. There were planes in the sky….it was going to happen again. After he calmed me down, he told me that the planes in the sky were the National Guard and other fighters flying over the area to make sure that it wouldn’t happen again. I heard what he said, but I was not sure I was completely buying it. I went back to the original plan; I slept with my clothes and shoes on.
Flash - morning came without incident, except for the fact that I had tossed and turned with my shoes on all night; I didn’t do anything but watch TV and stare out the window at the smoke. Then it happened, it was something that will haunt me the rest of my life and I was nauseous. My hotel room window was in the same direction as the wind was blowing and on the outside of my window, collecting in the corners and across the bottom were ashes. Ashes from the building, ashes from the smoke, ashes from people who had died. The windows didn’t open so the ashes of dead people gathered at my window and as the day passed, more gathered.
I laid in the fetal position in the middle of the bed and drifted in and out of sleep for the remainder of the day.
Flash – it was Thursday and I walked to our sister office, which is about two miles away…I feel like I am being followed….I am….it is the damn smoke. I worked in order to have a distraction. There was nowhere to go – no planes were flying, buses were completely filled, trains were oversold and no rental cars to be had for hundreds of miles. I was a hostage in hell and I had to patiently wait until the gatekeeper decided it is okay to open the airports again.
Flash - it was Friday and there was a glimmer of hope that I might get out that evening. Hope was dashed as some yahoo breached security at the Newark airport and it was shut down again. Another day in hell and more people were gathering at my window…..I had to get out of there or I might have gone insane.
Flash – it was Saturday, the airport was open; however, all passengers were required to arrive 3 hours before departure. If it would have been 8 hours– I would have stood there. I entered the airport and I was met with the National Guardsman armed with rifles, police with guns and police dogs everywhere. No one spoke a word – the weary had lined up to go home and I was one of them. I still had the $27 dollars stashed in the bottom of my bag and I managed to remember that when a parent leaves on a trip – you have to bring home a gift – even if you have been to hell. I found two small demitasse cups with the skyline on it or should I say the old skyline on it…it fit in my limited budget and fulfilled the gift bearing role….I made my purchase and headed to the gate. There was so much speculation on the television of who could have done this to the US that those who would have never garnered an additional glance were those who were now met with long stares of trepidation. I found myself staring longer and making mental notes of passengers in case I needed to recall it later as evidence. Everyone became a suspect until we all boarded onto the plane and were seated. We were just a group of people trying to get to our safe places in life – our non-hell places that we had been in. I was sitting next to the window when two older women sat down next to me – they flashed a weary grin and we acknowledged through our smiles, “yes we are leaving and it will be over soon.” I welcomed their presence and I told them so. I also told them that there were two soap opera stars on the plane from All My Children and the gentleman in the row in front of us was one of them. Neither watched All My Children nor was truly impressed; however, they did find it humorous when I mentioned that should the plane go down, I would be jumping over the seat in order to plant a full mouth on mouth kiss with him before impact. A little levity, a quiet giggle – it was good medicine.
We landed without incident in Dallas and when the plane touched down – the entire plane erupted in applause for the Captain. There was no rushing to get out of the plane. There was a deliberate purpose to our exiting – we, each one of us, stopped to thank the Captain and the crew for our safe arrival….and if only for a moment the arrival in Dallas was, as if, we landed in the Garden of Eden.
The first anniversary was very difficult. Images, documentaries, commentaries, monologues, dialogues – puking. I wrote the following on the morning of the first anniversary:
Towers strong & steady
Glistening in the sunrise –
A stunning sight unseen before.
Towers smoking, sirens blaring;
Not a cloud in the sky.
Towers heaving and breathing
Last breaths
Steel falling
And souls rising
An eerie blanket of silence
Coldness on a warm day
Ashes of souls gather at my window – silently
Waiting for the tears of a nation to release them.
And a nation still grieves.
As the fifth anniversary arrives, I have written my story. To confirm, I am not sure I still understand why I was supposed to be there, but I have come to realize that like so many others on that day, I was just an ordinary per¬son, inserted into an extraordinary situation.
