9/11 archived

May we all find a way to peace.

I can't believe it has been 7 years. It feels like yesterday. My thoughts and prayers go out there to all the people who lost someone.

Amen.

Donald Robinson
Dana Hannon

RIP

Gone but not forgotten.

Such a beautiful picture, and it's something when I see pictures and images of the towers when old movies (like Working Girl) come on, and I get a lump in my throat. It's so profound and emotional for me, not only because of its presence and stature but also because it respresented one of the best parts of my life - when I commuted to the Woolworth building (back in the 80's).

It's been 7 years now, and I remember that morning so clearly - looking out the window at the skyline from my office building at The Star Ledger in Newark. I remember how I felt, what I said.....this day will be a time to slow down, take pause and reflect for the rest of my life.

Even though I never met him, I immediately think about our fellow Maplewood resident, Doug Cherry. I don't think his wonderful wife and children still reside here, but I think of them especially, when I remember all the precious souls who perished that horrible day.

God bless America.

They had the beams of light going last night in the city and that took me right back.

I will never forget.

There are wounds that run so deep that even when it appears that all is well on the outside, something comes along and unexpectedly scrapes at the heart and the hurt is revealed. So it is with SHU’s 9/11 memorial.

“I’m fine, the other tower was hit, don’t worry” were the last words she heard from her husband who called from his office in Tower Two – and then the phone went dead… and so did he. Did any part of him touch the beam from which this cross was made?

We honor Seton Hall’s dead with this memorial, but I will also remember him, his wife, their three children and the Ohio State college student, a child of South Orange, who, in the aftermath, felt the need to do something and joined the marine reserves and was killed in Haditha, Iraq on August 3, 2005.

So many lives were forever changed in those few minutes on September 11, 2001.

I was thinking to myself this morning--while driving down SA, on my way back from babysitting my baby, who has suddenly realized what being at big boy school ALL DAY actually means--that today is hazier than it was that day. That day was one of those beautiful, crisp, sparkling, crystal clear, late fall/early summer days--just as the memory of that day, just about every moment of it, will remain crystal clear in my memory until the day I die.

I wonder if there will ever come a time in my life when I can call to mind those crystal clear memories without crying. Ironically, I hope not.

Peace.

Beautiful photo, and beautiful sentiments on this sad anniversary.

I don't expect the tears ever to dry up over this.

Peaceful thoughts to all.

I am cant' even focus on work this morning (with all the hustle and bustle going on around me).

As I remember those who perished, there are also those who lived through this horrendous ordeal and survived.

I remember the frenzy in my office as my co-workers frantically stayed on the phone to find their loved ones, including me (who's hubby - in sales- travels to hospitals in the city). I remember the panicked silence of waiting. I remember the relief when they checked in that ther were okay. I remember my sister's frantic phone call, about her best friend (NY Investment Banker - husband and father of four) - didn't answer his cell, only to find out later he took the day off for a dentist appointment in NJ, and then the sadness of hearing the devasting news about his BIL (husband and father from Montclair) who didn't make it home that day.

So many different emotions that day..panic, disbelief, anger, sadness, relief....so many exhausting emotions. I still remember and feel it today.

This day will always bring back the sadness.

From today:

To Vita, Dean and the dozen other friends and business colleagues who are no longer here...you are missed everyday.

So many are missed:

My sister sent an email about her friend John McLoughlin (Nicholas Cage's character in "World Trade Center" :

On this 7 year anniversary of 9/11 please say prayers for (the) McLoughlins; John is embarking upon more skin graft surgery and it’s quite painful!

So many memories of that day, seared into my mind. I will never forget.

I was fine this morning until I heard the bagpipes and the helicopters...

The corridor that leads to my office is lined with pencil sketches of Ground Zero by an artist who teaches at the University where I work. They've been there for several years, and I don't notice them much any more. But I looked at them carefully this morning and remembered.

Every minute of that day his as clear to me as if it happened yesterday. We watched the towers fall on a television in my office. It was a spanish-language channel, the only channel we could get. The woman standing next to me lost her husband, a Port Authority police officer, at that exact moment. I went to his funeral on a cold, raw, pouring October day. There were police officers from many states in attendance. So many bagpipers in uniform, so many exhausted police officers who had been to too many of these but were determined to honor their brothers.

I remember the empty skies - no airplanes for three days. I remember the first plane I saw in the sky after the flight ban was lifted and how that felt. I stood and watched it and wished its passengers and crew a good flight. It is strange how often I still remember that feeling whenever I see a plane go by.

I just looked up at the bulletin board over my desk. On it I still have tacked up the W.H. Auden poem that was circulated so much 7 years ago, and the song sheet for "America the Beautiful" that was passed around during a memorial service held on campus. I can't imagine ever taking them down.

Like meandtheboys, every crystal clear September morning makes me hurt. I thought it would go away after a few years but it hasn't. Maybe it never will.

For those who lost their lives and for the families that lost so much - I WILL NEVER FORGET!

Posted By: CLKI remember the empty skies - no airplanes for three days. I remember the first plane I saw in the sky after the flight ban was lifted and how that felt. I stood and watched it and wished its passengers and crew a good flight. It is strange how often I still remember that feeling whenever I see a plane go by.

I remember the sounds the planes that crashed in to the WTC made before they hit. They were decelerating. Living so close to Newark, I often still hear that sound when planes are making their approach and getting ready to land, and it always catches my attention, and still kinda freaks me out.

I remember that my birthday was only a little more than two weeks after 9/11. As it was one of the "big ones," my mother and sister had chipped in to get me a few days away by myself at a poor man's spa outside of Stroudsburg, PA. My children were not quite 1 and not quite 3 at the time, and I was TERRIFIED to leave them and my husband behind. I went anyway, and came up with an emergency strategy with my husband--if anything else were to happen, we would meet at the family vacation home on a lake in the woods in nowheresville, PA. Hopefully, there was nothing there "they" would want to blow up.

I remember driving on Route 80, getting nearer to The Gap, I saw two big trucks pulling over-sized cranes going in the opposite direction. I knew they were on their way to Ground Zero.

Senators Obama and McCain:

Oh to be a fly on the Lebanese flag.

This one, you can see Bloomberg behind them:

Not that I am biased, but:

And finally: