Monday, September 11, 2006

9/11--Where Was I?

On September 11, 2001, I was waiting to leave the hospital after a three-day stay for a medicine reaction. Breakfast was about to be served when a nurse walked into my room, turned on the television and said an airplane had hit the World Trade Center. We watched the news for awhile when we saw an airplane hit the second tower. We didn't see the airplane hit the Pentagon, but the news covered the story. The nurse had to work so she left me alone watching the news. I was anxious to leave the hospital but the news passed the time quickly until I was able to leave about 11:00 a.m.

Today is the fifth anniversary of the attack. Last evening, I watched 9/11 on CBS. It is a documentary with two brothers, Jules and Gedeon Naudet, filming the tragedy. The two were filming a documentary about a young firefighter in his probationary period when they became wrapped up in the 9/11 story. Previously, they had met actor/filmaker/screenwriter James Hanlon, who had become a New York City firefighter and was instrumental in arranging the filming of the documentary.

Many of the shots were close-up of the disaster but was edited and did not show the horror of people jumping from the towers. It did show a priest who was documented as the official first victim of 9/11. His victim number was 00001.

Bob Jones and I visited Ground Zero in May 2004. Although it was almost three years after the tragedy, the people visiting the temporary memorial were solemn. The only noise was the street traffic. No one was talking. I suppose they were all like me with visions of this horrific event in their minds.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The Diamondbacks allowed a "silent first pitch" before the game on 9/11. The Diamondbacks manager and the Washington National manager walked to the mound and placed a ball on the rubber during the ceremonies commemorating the deaths of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon tragedies five years ago.