September 11th - We Remember

Five years ago, the lives we knew at that time changed. I remember the day well as I'm sure the rest of you do. If you're reading this then I'm sure you know what you did that day and remember where you were when you got the news that our country was under attack. Here is my memory of that day.

I was about a month pregnant with Nathan. We hadn't told many people because of the fear you have with your first pregnancy. You know the one. You're afraid if you tell too many people and then something goes wrong with the pregnancy then you'll have to go down that road. I've since changed my mind, but that has nothing to do with the day at hand.

I was working here in Madison at the time and we had a pretty crazy schedule. We were doing some 12 hour shifts which are hard on the normal person, but add a pregnancy to the mix and it really takes a toll. The only people at work that knew I was pregnant were my boss and a part time worker named Dick. Dick at that time was 68 years old. He's a retired air traffic control officer. He still works with us and is as great today at 73 as he was at 68.

I needed to tell a part timer that I was pregnant so that I could make arrangements to call them in a moments notice to come work for me if I was either too sick or too tired. Dick was my go to guy. Before I got pregnant I'd take a Tylenol PM before I went to bed in the evening to ensure that I'd get some sleep. Now, obviously, I wasn't doing that. I'd called him the night before because I wasn't able to sleep much and I knew I couldn't make it from midnight to noon. Our arrangement would be that I would work from midnight to 8 then he'd finish my shift from 8am until noon.

He came in for me at 8 and I was beyond tired. I remember that ALL I could think of was getting in bed and going to sleep. Justin has a class in Brookings that day, so I was looking forward to just going to bed and getting some rest.

I went to punch out at the time clock and when I came back towards where Dick was he yelled out that a plane had hit a building in NY. He probably identified it as one of the world trade centers, but that would have meant nothing to me at the time. First of all, in my head I was thinking a puddle jumper of a plane, not a commercial air line. Second of all I was just too dang tired to even care. I yelled back "OK" and I was out the door.

I came home and didn't even turn on the TV. I slept like a baby. When I woke up I came to the computer. My homepage is set to KELO news. I opened the Internet Explorer window and that's when I found out what had been going on while I slept. I read what there was to read and immediately went and turned on the TV. I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing. I tried to call Justin, but he was still in class. I couldn't believe how much the world changed while I slept.

After reading KELO I started thinking of my cousin Holly. Her now husband, fiance at the time (I think), is from New York and it seemed to me that they had either just been there or were planning a trip there. I was scared to death that something had happened to them. I called Mom and she said that they were at home, safe, in Florida. Thank GOD!

I, like many of you, watched the coverage non stop. I couldn't make myself quit. I had this very thankful guilty feeling. I was so thankful that the chances of me knowing some that died that day were slim to none. I was right - I knew no one. I was thankful that my cousin Holly was home safe and sound. I was thankful that I had no reason to be in New York.

I think some of us do in our own way forget about September 11, 2001. I think that New Yorkers were effected much deeper than say, me. I watched it. I was scared by it. However, I didn't live it the same way they did and their feelings about it probably trump mine by far.

Today we're flying our flag proud in front of our house. If we were able to have it at half staff then we'd do so, but we wanted it out there to show that we have NOT forgotten. We just won't!