9/11 attacks - 10 years on.
9/11 attacks - 10 years on.
This 10th anniversary brings back a lot of memories.
That 9/11/01 was supposed to be a great day as one of my friend and I had planned to go to Germany to spend a relaxing day.
So we headed to Aachen in the early morning and we spent the first hours of the day visiting the city. It was a beautiful fall day and the leaves on the trees were already turning yellow and red, the weather was warm and that special autumn smell was in the air. We were happy to have a full day away from our children who were back to school since less than a week after the two months of the summer holidays.
We had lunch in a typical little german restaurant at the foot of the cathedrale and then decided to go for a walk in the biggest pedestrian street of the city. The place was full of people and the atmosphere was happy go lucky.
A few minutes after 15:00 (09:00 in NY) my friends got a sms from her teenager daughter, it said : “mum, the twin towers of Manhattan have been hit by planes, they are on fire”.
Renee and i looked at each other quite suprised to read this, but as we didn’t know the details of what was happeneing there, we didn’t measure the severity of the situation. So my friend called her daughter and as she was talking on the phone with Virginie, i could see Renee’s face turning to astonishment.
She hanged up and told me what had happened there, so we both decided to go back home right away and to follow the news on the radio or television. At that time, we had no idea, yet, of what was really going on there, but we could see more nervosity in the street where, 10 minutes ealier, life was going on a peaceful way.
We arrived home 35 minutes later, ran to the livingroom and turned on the television just in time to see the first tower collapse. I was in deep shock and I remember that I could not believe what i was seeing on the screen, i could neither talk,I thought it was the remake of the movie “the towering inferno”, my mind was really mixed up, was it a nightmare or the reality ? After listening to the journalists comments, we understood then, that something very serious was going on in the States.
My friend decided to pick her two daughters from school on her way back home and, instead of waiting for Joy and Andy to come by bus i headed to their school to pick them up.
I spent, without success, the rest of the day and the night trying to call some of my friends who were in NY, the lines were ‘out of service’ and that was the most stressful time I had to go through ; it took me 4 days before knowing they were extremely shocked but all alive.
As i am writing this review, i am watching the ceremony that is, right now, given in memory of all the victims and Paul Simon is singing an amazing acoustic version of his wonderful song... The sound of silence...
Comments
Dear Debbie, Yes, this story is very sad not only because many people died but most of all because it changed the face of the world and the gap between the muslin people and the others grew bigger. Where we needed more understanding, there is now, more fear and misunderstandings and this may last forever. I am very happy you read and commented this post. Thanks Debbie
Hello Tara, i am so glad this post was featured ! This ceremony was heart-moving and, to me, it doesn't seem this happened 10 years ago, it's like it was yesterday!
I corrected my typo mistakes and i am wondering how I should pronounce the word "said" I listened to it on google and i can not hear the difference. Could you please give me a clue.
Thanks for correcting me.
You put so much time and effort into this beautiful post. I hope writing and recording it helped you pause and reflect. Thank goodness there was a happy ending. I'm so glad your friends were okay.
I watched the beautiful memorial ceremony too, and now I feel as though I watched it with you. Thank you.
Here are a few typos/errors you and your readers can work on together:
one of my friend
pronunciation: said
they are in fire
ligns were ‘out of service’