Day of Remembrance

9-11....who would have thought saying those numbers would evoke such emotions, especially for those in the US? I bet most Americans can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they found out what was going on.......

I remember what a beautiful day it was - clear blue sky, bright sunshine. I was off from work as my youngest was having daysurgery to have tubes inserted into their ears. We were at the hospital by 6am and home by 8am-ish. I decided to watch the news and remember seeing the live news covering where the first plane had already hit. Then, while I was still watching the news cast, along with so many other people, we saw the 2nd plane hit the towers. I remember calling my husband, never taking my eyes of the TV. I just couldn't believe what was happening. Then I remember calling my boss. At the time I worked for Nestle Waters, which owns Poland Spring. My boss was the General Manager for much of the East coast, which included NYC. Each tower was actually its own delivery route. One guy for each tower and they spent their week just delivering to their tower - that's how big those towers were. I was very loyal to that company and loved working there - I guess that's why I called. I told him to turn on a TV, but calls had already come in about what was going on. I guess when the first plane hit, the guy in that tower was OK and Nextel'd the guy in the other tower to get out. From a story in Vanity Fair, I found out later the second guy was going to get on to the freight elevator that he always used, and on the elevator was the elevator operator who he knew very well from always being there, when the 2nd plane hit and I guess the elevator exploded or something like that. The Poland Spring guy managed to get out but he thought his friend in the elevator died. Days later he found out the guy survived and there was a photo in Vanity Fair of the two of them being reunited in the hospital.

I was very fortunate to not have known anyone directly that was killed or injured in 9-11. Again I refer to Poland Spring - a guy that worked there, his wife was one of only 12 out of 200 that survived on the 80 something floor - the sky lobby? She said they were told to evacuate and were down to something like the 40th floor when people started passing them going back up saying everything was fine, so many of them went back up. She actually worked higher up in the tower, but fortunately never made it back up that far. Someone else I remember telling me that a family member and their 4yr old daughter were on one of the planes headed to Disneyland in CA.

I don't understand when people from other countries think it is wrong for us to want to go after the people who caused this to happen? I'm not saying there is a right way or a wrong way or how it should be done, but does the rest of the world really expect us to have something that catastrophic happen and just sit back and say OK? I'm not looking to debate the Iraq war...that's far too complicated. I'm just saying, if it happened anywhere else, that country would want to do something about it too.

Other than that, the only other news I feel like commenting on today is the NFL football player who, yesterday, was thought of having a grim chance of ever walking again, is now being told will probably walk again. Always nice to hear some good news for a change!