People say that pain and memories fade with time. I think sometimes that is true. Other times, nothing can erase the memory. It is etched in stone to last a millennium.
September 11, 2016 — It has been 15 years since the world changed forever.
Over the last 15 years, I have seen and done many things. And they are fleeting blips, events that I could not remember no matter how hard I try.
I do remember a beautiful blue sky and puffy white clouds. I remember being at work at the Cranford Recreation Department when we got a phone call from Lois’s husband, Andy, telling us that a plane hit the tower. All of us thought it was probably a small Cessna type plane. I remember turning on the radio in my office and struggling to get reception. Through the crackling and static, I remember hearing that it was a passenger plane that hit.
The next hour or so is a blur as the five of us in the office listened to the radio.
I remember going home to watch the news that morning and watching the first tower fall. I called out to my mother as I stared in disbelief. This can’t be happening, I remember thinking. But it was and I could not imagine the carnage as I sat on my couch. The sheer terror felt by a city, a country and the world.
I remember returning home at the end of the work day, I rushed to get back in front of a television. I remember watching teary eyed as the devastation was broadcast. The loss of life was only beginning to be realized. I remember as the stories of the heroes were told. I remember feeling the grief and the swell of National Pride the days and weeks after.
I will never know the pain that is felt by those who lost loved ones on that day. But I will also never forget where I was when the world changed forever.