Usually, first thing in the morning, I turn on my radio to listen to the news and weather on WMRN. This morning I could not bring myself to turn it on, knowing it would recall the events of a year ago today. I remember the shock I felt when Jeff Ruth announced he had just been handed a bulletin telling that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. My first reaction: How could a pilot be so careless? I had no thought at that time that it was a deliberate act of terrorism, and that three more crashes would soon be reported.
So today my radio and TV is silent. Instead I went to the shelf that holds my diaries, took down 2001, and turned to September 11. The page was not large enough to record all the horrible the events of that day as they unfolded, but it is a contemporary record of the catastrophic events along with my mundane activities.
(Across top of page)
Can this be happening? No jet trails-all planes grounded. 75 degrees
Ralph Hedges here painting the outside doors green. Great Blue heron on grass by pond with a 15" carp
WMN radio about 9:00 AM reported a plane had crashed into the World Trade Building in NYC.
Mary called saying another plane hit the second tower of the World Trade Bldg.
The TV on-and then news that Pentagon in Washington had been hit by a plane. Chaos everywhere from the terrorist who hi-jacked Commercial flights at Boston & Newark, NJ and flew into Ohio before returning east for destruction. 50,000 people work at the WTB-both towers soon imploded. 100 to 800 dead at Pentagon. 300 people on planes.
In to Marion at 11:30 for dental appointment. Took books to Molony to sell. Then to Mary's to wait for David who was coming from Cincinnati. He and I went to Thiels Wheels in Upper to look at a "Mule." Too big and $6,000! David left to go to Holmes County to pick up Amish made chairs ordered earlier. I came home after shopping at Meijer. Calls from Kathi, Dave, and Karen.
Consensus: (Osama) Bin Laden is perpetrator
A visit from David, my son who lives in Cincinnati, is always a pleasure, and on that day we will always remember he was coming up to go to Upper Sandusky to look at an electric cart, and later he would clean up the fallen trees in the woods. When I met him in Marion at my sister Mary's apartment, we hugged each other, and few words were exchanged. What is there to say about the events unfolding on Mary's TV? It is beyond belief. Another plane crash in Pennsylvania seemed to be linked to the World Trade Center and Pentagon crashes.
As David and I drove to Upper Sandusky he noted the clear blue sky with no contrails. All planes had been grounded. He received a call on his cell phone from his wife Karen in Cincinnati where she is a teacher at Walnut Hills High School. School had been dismissed, and she felt vulnerable, and asked David to return home after he picked up their new chairs in Holmes County.
After he left I turned on the TV. All programming focused on the terrorist attacks. The images of the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsing is burned into my brain-not only from that first sighting, but the many replays since then. Knowing now that nearly 3,000 people were losing their lives, I still shrink from the memory. It won't go away simply because I am not seeing today's commemorations, but writing this is my tribute to the heroes and the victims.
The past year is not the way I envisioned the start of the twenty-first century. If we could only turn back time to the day before yesterday--before we realized our vulnerability.
