I was working from home that day and my husband was an at-home dad then -- so we were both home with our 1-year-old twins. I was on a conference call when it happened. I had the TV on and saw everything. The oh-too-serious work colleagues didn't see anything, but when I told them what happened, they continued on with the meeting, not missing a beat. My husband and I were glued to the TV for the next 48 hours.
My thoughts were on my friends and former co-workers from my network television news days in NYC. That afternoon, I received an e-mail from one of them -- my friend Ellen -- with the subject heading "HAVE YOU SEEN JEFF?" It was an e-mail with about two sentences in it -- describing her husband Jeff who worked for Sandler O'Neill in WTC Tower 2, 104th floor ... attaching a photo of him ... saying he was her love, her life and the loving father of their two small girls. She was sending it to everyone she knew -- even outside NYC -- desperate to find him. My husband had just left a job as a producer of firefighter training videos and had worked w/ NYC-area firefighters. He tried contatcting them to see if they could help. He could not reach anyone as they were all mobilized to Ground Zero. Eventually, she would be told he did not survive. She has since published her heartbreaking journal about the year after losing Jeff in the
Ladies Home Journal,
the New Yorker, etc.
I went to Manhattan only 3 weeks after for a planned reunion with all my television friends for a colleague's 50th birthday. The traveling was reminiscent of the war zones I'd been in -- only right here at DFW with armed national guardsmen patrolling the airport. And, once I got to NYC, the city felt heartsick. The wounds seemed raw. I had never ever heard this before -- but some of my friends were saying for the first time ever that they were thinking about leaving the city. Some of them worked for NBC and they had to all get Cipro that day because of a huge Anthrax scare in the building. One of our friends was so freaked out that she left 30 Rock that day and refused to come back or attend our reunion. On the plane back, I remember the plane being delayed while we all waited ... and a poor Sikh family finally boarding -- with the look of having been "shaken down" severely by security. The passenger next to me was horrifyingly Archie Bunker in his reaction: "Look at that guy with his turban. He looks just like those f$%$'n hijackers!"
What I remember, though, most about that day ... is what it did to us as a country ... of course the negative soul-searing experience ... but also the positive legacy it has left us with. Little acts of kindness and sacrifice that I've come to see as uniquely American, like the kind Vermont ski lodge owner who gave me a complimentary ski vacation package for my newly-widowed 9/11 friend Ellen and her daughters to take. The incredible response of those right here in our little town .... A group of residents of different faiths immediately came together to have a multifaith prayer meeting ... where the city and the local college donated funds to give us the velodrome for it, the mayor made a politically-daring act by making a public prayer, our emergency responders gathered with us in a show of unity.
Like other places I've covered where the people are reeling from tragedy ... (OK City, Sarajevo, Bosnia) ... Americans have come together in the realization that all they have is family and God. That these were the most important things in life.
That part is what has stayed with me most five years later.
