Friends of Dave #247: what would you do?
20 Years...
"Is this really happening?"
There are only a few moments in my life when I recall thinking this to myself as events were unfolding around me.
All planned work that day came to a complete halt. Meetings or calls? It was clear that whatever we all thought was important really didn't matter any more.
So I left the office. I had a wife, a toddler and a 9 month old baby at our new home that we had purchased a few months earlier. It was a big day -- we had just gotten a new couch delivered.
I jumped in my car and sped north on a near deserted I-95 in CT, radio tuned to AM news station 1010 WINS, trying to process everything I was seeing and hearing.
I just needed to get home.
In the opposite direction, one right after the other, I will never forget seeing what looked like every police car and fire truck in the area, lights flashing and sirens blaring. They too were speeding with a sense of purpose.
Their call was a large dust cloud on the southern tip of Manhattan, about 40 miles away from where they lived.
Again...."Is this really happening?"
It was around noon on September 11, 2001. How can it be that it was twenty years ago today? It may have been yesterday.
It's funny how the sound of the gravel hitting my tires in my driveway was comforting that day. I will never forget that sound.
I will never forget my wife telling me when I walked in the door that the first people to sit on the first "big" purchase for our new house were actually the guys who brought it into the family room that morning. It was in front of the TV.
We heard fighter jets and military helicopters buzzing overhead that night and every night the rest of the week. I will never forget how that they were so low the house shook.
Toward the end of the week, there were more police sirens -- this time going down our street to our neighbor's house a few doors away. I will always remember the sinking feeling I felt when I learned that he had worked at Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center. We had waved to one another in passing but we never got the chance the meet in person.
Nowadays it is hard for our now adult kids to fathom that our country actually came together in the weeks that followed 9/11.
We all have stories we remember from that time in our lives. Stories about where we were and who we were with when we heard about what happened. For those who lived in the NYC area, we all know someone who was in lower Manhattan that day and was lucky to get home. Sadly, we also know someone who was lost.
I will never forget that unspoken, unifying feeling that our lives had unexpectedly changed on that clear, absolutely beautiful Tuesday morning. Every single one of us.
I will never forget.
XOXO
Dave
Never Forget....
The Man Behind the Red Bandana — vimeo.com
Welles Crowther, a former lacrosse player at Boston College, died a hero on 9/11 after he saved numerous lives inside the South Tower of the World Trade Center. 13 powerful minutes -- even if you have seen it before, please watch it again.