We Will Never Forget

On this sacred day…our hearts and thoughts go back seven years to 9-11…a day of infamy and a day none of us will ever forget. I’ll never forget the 7am phone call in Reno from my brother in Texas. With a gasp in his breath that woke me from a deep sleep his words ring in my soul today, “SIS…turn on your TV RIGHT NOW…(some Oh my God’s and more gasps came from him)…hurry turn it on…our country has been attacked! Someone flew a plane into the World Trade Center!” I said OK, and we hung up…I turned on the TV and sat up in bed just numb…flat numb and speechless as I watched the tragedy unfold before me live on television. It was so surreal to me and yet so amazingly horrific and vivid. I live clear out on the West Coast, and this was taking place on the East Coast…so far away…but New York City seemed just around the corner as I watched the agonizing terror grow in epic proportion before my very eyes. I am not a panicker; I am not an unreasonably excitable person. But as time passed quickly, the unknown began to creep into my body. I debated whether to send my child to school or not that day. I wondered what other horror lay around the bend. Could the horror come to Reno? Were bombs going to fly? What could happen? My child was 12…middle school age. He was old enough to not censor the fright from his eyes, but did I tell him? I had to tell him…it would be consuming the nation…if he heard it at school but hadn’t heard it from Mom first…what would he think? I woke my child early and sat him in front of the television. I explained to him the events in words I had to try hard to muster. None of us knew what was happening before us. None of us had answers for our children. We were all so numb and silent in grief and disbelief. My child went to school. I went to work. Nobody accomplished anything that day except for quiet and somber consumption of what had happened. So many emotions, so many questions. The morning lingered on, minutes creeping by. Then…the Pentagon…Oh My Lord! What next? Endless creeping moments flashed images of horror in the face of every American. Then…the ultimate sacrifice of those exceptional patriots on Flight 93. They were the first heroes in this War Against Terror. None were sworn into the military, yet they were the first soldiers to lay down their lives to protect the USA against attack on our own sovereign soil since Pearl Harbor in 1942…59 long years prior. We will never forget. God rest the souls of all Americans taken or left alone by taken family on that day. May peace be with you. May peace still be with the family of Thomas Foley, fire fighter from West Nyack, New York. America heals and continues to grow…She will last on and remain the bastion of freedom.