20130911-073443.jpgGosh, I can’t believe it’s been twelve years since the horror of 9/11. Every year as the anniversary passes I can’t help but remember what I was doing and how much has changed since then. To this day I cannot imagine the pain and sadness victims of 9/11 feel and hope that as the years continue to pass they find a bit more closure. Here is a collection of what your Austin Moms Blog contributing team was doing when they learned of 9/11…what were you doing?

Vanessa

I was sadly attending the funeral of a fellow classmate. I was a sophomore in high school at the time and my classmate Christina decided to end her life too soon. As we were leaving the funeral we overhead radio DJs talking about plane crashes in New York and at first we thought they were joking as radio hosts often do, but we soon realized they were not. As we returned to school our calculus teacher had a television on and we were watching the news coverage. It was horrifying. The day is sort of a blur, but I vividly remember returning home to my mother sitting in front of the television requesting to pray. We didn’t pray a lot in my house growing up so the severity of the day, while relevant to me during the day, really hit me once I got home. To this day I get emotional when I think about all of those who lost their loved ones and do not understand how people could have that much hate in their hearts to destroy a country the way that they did.

Lisa C.

My story is kinda sad. I’d dropped Todd off at the airport at 6 am (Reno Time) and had just fallen back asleep. He called an hour later and told me to turn on the news. I watched just as the second plane hit the tower. I was unemployed at the time and Porter was recovering from hip-surgery {Yes, my dog had hip dysplasia too!} After watching CNN all day and learning that my friend’s brother didn’t make it out of the WTC, our friend Josh called. It was his birthday and he wanted to know if we felt like getting a drink. Of course we said yes! Josh was one of our closest friends. He passed away in 2009, a few days after we told him I was pregnant with Lucy. He was so happy we were going to be parents. We put Porter down just this past Christmas. So 9/11 is very much a haunted day for me.

Elisabeth

I will never forget the moment I heard about the first plane crashing into the WTC. I was driving out of campus housing at UTSA and heading to work to open the tanning salon where I worked. I heard the radio DJ say that President Bush had just stopped reading to some kids at a school, and that a plane had crashed into one of the Towers. As soon as I got to work I called Jared and told him to turn on the TV since we didn’t have one at the salon. The rest of the day was just so upsetting. My mom, sister and I had lived in NYC for a while during High School, and my sister was getting ready to move back to NYC in a couple of weeks. We spent the day checking in on friends and hearing stories of many of our friends – how some of them should have been there, but for whatever reason, were running late, or missed the train…I still get teary when I think about it. Anytime I see the skyline of NYC now, it makes me sad. I still have a photograph (purchased from a street vendor on one of my trips) hanging in my house of the NYC skyline the way I remember it – with the Towers. I will never, ever forget.

Allison

Age: 20 years

Place of Residence: Living at my mom’s in Cedar Park, TX

College: Austin Community College about to transfer to University of Texas, Austin

Profession: Personal Assistant/Assistant Planner for a wedding/event coordinator

My mom, a teacher, was already at school. She called me on my landline in my bedroom at home (yes, those used to be cool) and told me to turn on my tv. It was a work day instead of a school day for me. My mom said that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center {insert my internal thought of “what the hell is the World Trade Center”…yes, I’m serious}. After about a minute of turning on my television, the 2nd plane hit the other tower and it was clear that it was an act of terror. A few minutes after that, victims began jumping/falling from the windows. I sat and watched in horror before finally peeling myself away from the television to go to work. I’m still so sad for the people who had to endure such a horrible death and even more so, the loved ones who had to watch.

What were you doing, “where were you when the world stopped turning, that September day?”

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