Another incredible few minutes of torturous “rip your heart out” thoughts was when the fourth plane was taken over by terrorists, but a group of a few brave men met in the back of the plane and used their cell phones to call their loved ones! What anguished and painful conversations they must have had. What a day of senseless death, dying, and bitter hatred. What a nightmare.

Why, oh why can’t we build a gentle compassionate world for those sweet and ramdom hearts like Charlotte’s? God help us all. OR, come quickly.

Oh, and, WAY TO GO, CHAR!!!!

I couldn’t watch as people threw themselves out of those buibuildings. Then we were hearing stories about cell phone calls from people in another airplane that had crashed in Pennsylvania….that was headed for another destination in Washington; as well as phone calls from a few on the plane just before it crashed into the petagon. Oh how tremendously brave the callers were.

There were heroes on those planes….and those firemen and policemen who lost their lives going into those demolished buildings trying to rescue people…they were heroes, as well as those who managed to live through it all after dragging out people and then bodies. For a time, childrenlooked to firemen and policemen as their heroes, diminishing the role of favorite superheroes..

And, for a time, we all were united with that special bond of pride in being Americans. Politics faded into the background. Congress even managed to work together for the good of the country. American flags flew proudly on almost every house.

Too soon we forget. But then the anniversary rolls around and I am reminded again of the day I sat for hours staring in disbelief at my television set frequently with tears streaming down my face as each call came in and we mourned together what was happening right here on American soil and those thousands of lives that were lost. Oh my, we need to be reminded….because we should never forget.

Like everyone else we watched it on tv the rest of the day, totally mesmerised and horrified by what was happening.

It was an absolute miracle that thousands more people weren’t killed, though. I also think for the Americans the biggest shock is that something like this could actually happen in your country. But of course the biggest miracle is the one that occurred in Charlotte’s life that day. I do wonder how many more came to know the Lord on 9/11? Atrocities like that do have a way of focussing the mind. Tori your post was sobering.

At work – the news – seeing the horror as it happened. “Terrorists” –that was the first thing out of my mouth!

Co-workers calling from 3 different airports – being taken off of planes – calling to find out what’s going on – “Go home to your family right now! You’re not going anywhere today.”

My kids calling from college (Chicago and Huntington, WV) – “Mom, what’s going on?” My son in WV at Marshall University – “We’re (most of the school) are crowded in the student center glued to the TV; no classes.” (normally followed by “Yeah!” But not this day). My son in Chicago at Moody Bible Institute – “Mom, we’re being told to go to the underground tunnels; they’re evacuating the Sears Tower.” I would have loved to have had them within hugging distance…that was hard.

The boss coming back from the Pittsburgh airport – no flights going out – PIT monitoring a “stray” plane that won’t respond to the the calls of the flight controllers – more images – people running from the White House – the Pentagon on fire – a plane down in Shanksville, PA…that’s so close.

We all went home – more images on the TV – people in other countries dancing in the streets – “they” finally hit us! Like you, auburn60, that’s when I got my flag out and put it up…it’s been there ever since – I’m on my 6th flag now.

I didn’t cry that Tuesday, or Wednesday, or Thursday, but I stayed home on Friday and watched our President and Billy Graham lead us in mourning. That’s when the dam broke and I cried myself out. And I still cry when I see the images now, and I cry whenever I hear Michael W. Smith’s song “There She Stands”.

But, you know what? I cry now because we made it through.

Thanks, Tori, for helping us remember the things we forgot about that day. Charlotte – for helping us remember the things that are most important.

I can not remember any feeling…. anger, fear….. only numbness, nothingness, and the image of that second plane crashing into the second tower. I watched, but could not accept in my psyche that it was real. It was just another picture on the TV.

Even I find that strange.

In retrospect, if anyone did observe me, I wonder if they might have thought that I was untouched by it.

My memories of 9/11/01 take me in so many different directions. On that day I was getting settled into my office after a quicky 8:30-9:00 meeting that lasted 20 minutes.. So I had time to fuss with the radio (I like talk radio in the AM) and was awaiting Glenn Beck to come on at 9AM. Something had pulled me out of my office for a spell and by the time I got back to my desk all hell broke loose on the radio… the local radio had pulled Glen’s show and had gone live with the news and what I was hearing I just couldn’t believe. I headed upstairs to one of the VP’s offices because he had a tv in his office. (this is backward, shy, introvert – Robyn) I don’t even remember what I said but I think we both were just so shocked at me busting into his office like that – he turned his tv on by my demand. As I stood there (numb) watching this, soon others heard and through-out the building everyone was clustered around the offices with tv’s. It was a short work day. After the towers fell, and D.C. was hit and we heard a place not far from here – a plane had gone down, we started hearing talk that they wanted the city cleared out for security reasons… downtown Harrisburg was closing up and sending workers home.

But this is what I remember most about that day. Wow! the World Trade Towers are gone. Lives lost! The skyline of NYC changed for ever. Here in America! This kind of thing just doesn’t happen here… Calling family to “see if they are o.k.”, gathering at Mom & Dad’s house hugging each other, talking about what just happened and what does this mean… My mom bringing a post-card out for me to read… It was a post card I had sent to her that I bought from the gift shop on the Observation Deck of the World Trade Center circa 1983. My brother was just out of highschool (three years earler I was just out of highschool) but I had a “good” job so I took my little brother to The Big Apple and we walked all over that city and we walked down to Lower Manhattan just to say that we were on the top of those towers… Now they’re gone.

Fast forward a year… My brother wanted to go back. Only a year later they were still cleaning up debris. It was more like a construction site with fencing keeping you out but he wanted to do that walk again so we headed to New York for the week-end. We did the walk from mid-town Manhattan to lower Manhattan, this time with two more siblings. Two of our sisters joined us. As we approached the neighborhood in the area of were the Towers should be, something just came over me. This is quite a walk but I’m a walker and I love to tour and site see when I travel… all of a sudden I just felt ill in my heart. My legs got shakey like I couldn’t take another step. I called out to my brother – “I can’t do this”. They all just kept on walking and talking… I called out again that I couldn’t do this and we stopped. I explained to them (I’m weeping now) that I can’t go back down there. They all wanted to continue so I convinced them that I would be o.k. but I was going back to the hotel. Just the images of those very streets we were walking, just a year before people were running for there lives… all the emotions just overwhelmed me! I will never forget the pain I felt in remembering 9/11.

I am a sound tech at my church and I have been doing a “Gaither Video” nite series for a few months now. Just once a month on a Friday night I play a dvd Gaither Concert. Tomorrow nite… umm (it’s late) tonight I am playing “Let Freedom Ring”. It sounds like it might be a good turnout. I would hope I have the Gaithers blessings. It’s all in the up-and-up… no copyright infringement or anything. I’m not collecting any money or anything. Just a bunch of us gathering in His name to listen and watch these artists sing His praise.

I am so glad that Charlotte was able to see the beautiful side of this day. And what a blessing to know we gained that precious little sister-in-Him on that day.