Where were you on September 11, 2001?

I do. I was a junior at The University of Texas. When 9/11 was going on, I was sitting in my management class. It was a beautiful day in Austin as well and after class, a friend of mine went to sit outside before our next class. We were sitting at the MLK statue when another friend of ours walked by looking totally devastated. I asked him, “What’s going on? Are you okay?” He told us that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I immediately thought, “That’s not right. That’s got to be a no-fly zone area.” My friend and I went to the closest dorm and everyone was sitting in front of the TV watching the coverage.

I ended up going to my next class, but the professor of course did not teach. She said we could stay to discuss what was going on, or you could leave. I went back to my room, but the rest of the day was a blur.

I pray for all the families and victims of 9/11 and all the men and women who have served our country.

I lived in Manhattan at the time and worked in Rock Center. I was coming up from the subway and noticed a crowd watching a tv outside a nail salon. When I saw Tower 1 was on fire I ran to my office. My sister and brother-in-law worked in Tower 1 for Marsh. I tried calling but it was tough to get anything but voice mail. My other sister was out on Long Island hurrying over to our mom’s house. My mom ALWAYS had the tv on…why on earth she didn’t have it on that day, we will never know. It was probably my dad looking down on her, protecting her. If she saw what was going on before my sister came to be with her she probably would have had a heart attack.

Somewhere in the mix of the next hour my sister in NYC was able to get through to my mom’s house and from there I heard she was ok and taking cover in the basement of some building with a group of people. We couldn’t locate her husband. She knew he had a big meeting that morning that included the extended staff of his department from all over the country. They were conducting this meeting at the office.

My husband worked down near the Flatiron building and he had a view of the towers. I was on the phone with him when the second tower was hit…when we knew this was no accident. I begged him to leave work. He was in the media at the time and wanted to stick around. Again we were on the phone when Tower 2 fell. I was in a crowded conference room screaming into the phone, “what is all the smoke? What just happend?!” “It’s down.” he said.

Rock Center was evacuated. My husband said he was leaving too.

Every person was on the street. Everyone was heading north or east to a bridge. It was very quiet except for the emergency vehicles. It was weird to have so many people walking and for it to be so quiet. Cell phones were out of commission so when my phone rang people looked at me. I was crossing 59th and 5th when my husband called to say Tower 1 just went down and probably took my sister’s husband with it.

I went into autopilot. I stopped at an ATM. I wanted to stop and get water (I was about 6 weeks pregnant and very sweaty.) I just wanted to get home.

My sister and her husband and I and my husband lived in the same apartment building on the Upper East Side. Everyone was moving north. I figured I would be first home. I was hoping my husband was not far behind me. He suggested I get off 5th and head over to 3rd – in case there was something else coming our way. I was afraid to go too far East. The UN is over on 1st. I was worried that we had no food in the apartment. It’s amazing the twists and turns your brain makes in a crisis.

I hit the answering machine button immediately when I got to the apartment. There were calls from cousins and friends from everywhere-Texas, Long Island, upstate NY. “Are you guys ok?”

The last message was my brother-in-law, “I am in the apartment. I never entered the building. I saw the plane hit. I came home but I can’t find anyone.”

I never moved so fast in my life. I left a note on a paper towel taped to our door. “John is home. Come up.”

I am convinced to this day that my daughter who is 9 1/2 now, is so healthy because of the generous glass of scotch I had after arriving at my sister’s apartment. My brother-in-law was ok. My husband arrived about an hour later. My sister was in the masses running from the collapsing towers. Later, she told us how she ripped up her Hermes scarf to share with a couple of people so they could cover their mouths from the choking dust. And how one of the women she shared with was like, “No, don’t.” before she tore it. Again. The brain is funny.

We sat, like you, glued to the tv. We watched the hospital staff stand outside waiting for the nothing. Nothing. No one. Being so far uptown many of my sister and brother-in-law’s friends and business associates stopped in on their way north. Stopped for a drink or a word. “Did you see so-and-so? Did they get out?” Marsh lost over 300 people that day. My brother-in-law and his secretary were the only two from his department to survive. His department is spread across the country. They were all in the building that day. They lost so so many friends that day. My sister and brother-in-law have never been the same. I know they get together with other survivors every year. I know they were together today.

A few weeks before 9/11 my sister asked me if I ever had dreams of our dad. He had died the year before. She said he came to her in a dream and asked her how she was. She said we (meaning the family) weren’t good.

He kept insisting we were all ok. We were all ok.

So many others weren’t.