My September 11th 2001.......

As I recall it started out like any other morning, I was getting ready to go to work (I worked 3 days a week as a Nanny in New York, it was my second family and I had been doing it for a few years) I was to get the subway to WTC and meet my boss at 10am a block away, Anyway I was putting my make-up on in the bedroom with the TV on when I saw the footage of the first plane that hit the World Trade Centre (we lived in Jersey City which was a seven minute ferry or subway ride to WTC) we had a view of WTC from our balcony and across the hall was a communal room with a floor to ceiling window view of downtown Manhattan.

So I grabbed the video camera and went across to the communal room and I started taping and talking to a neighbour about how they would put out the fire and then my battery went dead.....( I have to say that I am glad about that now) I went back across to my apartment to put it on charge then I heard a really loud scream, so I ran back across only to see that a second plane had hit the WTC, holy crap what the hell was happening. I went back to my apartment and I think I spoke to Kevin and by now the talk had turned to terrorism. I went back to sit with several neighbours across the hall, it wasn't long before we sat and watched the first tower collapse, I remember mentally trying to clear the smoke because my mind couldn't fathom what I had just seen, it was more than my brain was able to process. We all sat and saw the next one fall too, the room was silent and it also buzzed at the same time. Most people started their sentences with " I should have been there today but......." and then how they had a Dentist appointment or had to go to midtown instead or they were sick etc etc. Very surreal to know it could have easily been you. In fact Kevin was scheduled to be at a conference on the 107 floor but cancelled a few days before.

The next few hours passed in sort of a blur of phone calls from family and friends, Kevin coming home with a guy from work who was trying to call his wife, back and forth across the hall and watching TV and listening to the radio.....utter disbelief. Kevin was in and out (he worked a five minute walk from home) he was outside and saw the towers fall too. I got a phone call from Kevin that a couple of guys from work were staying at a hotel opposite the WTC so they were not able to return there so I began getting rooms ready for them to come and stay with us for a few nights. Kevin went to the ferry dock to help distribute water for the survivors coming off the ferries. It felt like a dream

The next few days were a blur of activity of making meals, doing laundry, looking across the hall to see if the smoke had cleared yet, ducking every time fighter jets zoomed passed our apartment very low (we lived on the top floor corner apt which also had floor to ceiling windows) and every time I left our apartment in the car I had to show id so I could get past the police barricades that were for now a permanent fixture. Also being glued to the TV.

I wondered what now, I had worked downtown for many years and spent hours upon hours with the kids in the WTC in the toy stores and bookstores and cafes etc, I had caught the subway into the WTC I spent hours sitting by the fountain outside trying to get kids to nap in their strollers. After a week I went back to work in a different NY, ferry docks had armed guards and police everywhere, some people were walking around with gas masks on and those white masks that construction guys wear. Flags were flying all around, shop windows were covered in missing posters posted by hopeful families, flowers and candles in doorways and the tough New Yorkers who would not let this thing beat them would smile at you as a sense of togetherness was in the air. I started writing in a diary for a while because it was to much for my brain to hold, It feels like it was yesterday and also years ago that this happened.

Today my thoughts are with everyone who was touched by this sad tragedy.