About Remembering

I was going to write about my ‘wins’ this week which were noteworthy, at least to me. First, I was able to catch and re-locate five adorable kittens that have been living in (and trashing) my brand new shed for over 3 months and now they have a wonderful new life in a dairy barn with lots of fresh hay, regular feeding and little girls to play with daily! Everybody is happy! Secondly, I finally was able to get my professional photos taken and, not only am I happy with the results so far, but it was a really fun session with Guen Egan of Guen Egan Photography and her adorable two-year old son! Lastly, I met a woman with whom I have made a commitment to read the chapter in Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill called Persistence. The deal is to read this chapter every night for 30 days straight and if one of us ever misses a night/day, we must begin our 30 days from the beginning! With two nights under our belts, and as long as it takes to read this chapter each night, I am quite sure we will be sticking to our commitment! ;-)

That’s what I was going to write about but I changed my mind after something I saw last night on Facebook.

As we just passed the iconoclastic date of 9-11, I doubt there is anyone in the world, let alone this country, that can ever forget what happened on that date in 2001. After all, it was the World Trade Center, not the American Trade Center!

I certainly will never forget the day. My only daughter had just begun college about a hundred miles away and I was scared for her safety. My oldest son was still in the Army and stationed at Fort Hood, Texas and I was frantically scared for HIS safety! My youngest son was in Junior High on that day. Simply because he was not with me, I was afraid for his safety. I was hysterical. I was crying; in a state that I would be stuck in continuously for over two weeks.

I remember I was having work done on my car but I don’t remember how I got it there. I think my neighbor may have helped me out that morning. I remember how awesomely beautiful it was that day in early September with the sky so brilliantly blue, the air crisp and dry with a hint of the fall season to come. I was feeling great because I had also just started school in an effort to further my higher education. In fact, I was excited to be sitting down to my first homework assignment that very day when I turned on the Weather Channel as background and saw my first glimpse of the disaster unfolding before my eyes. It was roughly 10 something am and just after the second tower had been hit.

Being totally alone, I got on the phone to my parents, the only people I knew who could be contacted at that time of day, and, being barely intelligible, I told my mother to turn on the TV. At first, downplaying my hysteria, she was reluctant to join me in my feelings of horror but finally got the TV on just as we watched, in total disbelief, the first building go down.

Although I screamed, my denial was also absolute. I kept thinking that since this is on TV, it must be a damn movie! I didn’t want to watch this! I wanted to watch the weather and baseball and Star Trek...not this!

But as the day wore on, the facts were undeniable. This was as real as it gets and it was widespread across the country and the fear was overwhelming and infuriating. I forgot about my homework and I could not tear myself away from the stories that were unfolding.

All of our lives were changed on that day. I grew up on Long Island. My brother used to work in one of the towers. My Dad was a firefighter and a Chaplain. We did not know anyone personally who died but it still hit close to home! The fact remains: WE ARE ALL HUMANS! It hit hard!

When I wasn’t crying, I was itching to get my hands on a gun and take revenge! I had never been, nor am I now, a war-mongering type or have even owned a real gun but I wanted REVENGE! I also wanted my oldest son to go AWOL and run off to Canada, a fact for which I was ashamed within the next day or two and for which I apologized to him soon thereafter. (Hey! I’m a mother...what can I say...it was instinct!)

I was so completely obsessed with this event that I recorded, on VHS tapes, the ABC news coverage with Peter Jennings, around the clock for two whole weeks. I still have those tapes somewhere with me but have never watched them due to the heartache that I would suffer from doing so. In fact, when the first anniversary came around, I was adamant about not grieving because I was so tired of the grieving!

I do believe, however, in remembering. It’s sort of like the Holocaust. You MUST remember or be doomed to repeat! That is why, when I ran across a post that a friend of mine put up on Facebook last night (thank you, Gary!), I clicked on it. It is a video report on an aspect of 9-11 that I had never seen and my guess is that not many of us have seen. It brought it all back, of course, but it is a heartwarming story and makes me very proud to be able to call myself a New Yorker!

Here is the link and never forget!

Have a great week!

Cindy Hurd