How I remember it.

The phone kept ringing and I was getting really annoyed, it was early and I wanted to sleep. I finally got up and answered because the person on the other line kept hanging up and calling back. It was my sister, I don't remember what exactly she said but she told me to turn on the TV.

I stumbled over the boxes still left over from our recent move and I turned the TV on. On every channel was the World Trade Center burning because a plane had just flown into it. I asked her what happened, she didn't know. While we watched the second plane flew into the second tower, I panicked...I thought we were being bombed and our new location approximately 5 miles from the World Trade Center wasn't going to fare well for us.

I told her I had to go, I needed to find my husband, he was on his way to his second week of work in Manhattan and he was on the NYC subway. What if he went through the World Trade Center that morning? I started banging on my Brother in Law's door, I told him to get up, we were being bombed. He came out and we watched the TV together. I tried and tried to call Teddy but the phone lines were too busy. We didn't have cell phones at the time, I didn't know where he was and I was scared.

Our friend who had lived down the street from us in Alabama, now by a weird coincidence lived down the street from us in NJ. Her boyfriend had gotten up that morning and gone to work in Manhattan too, she was scared and wanted to come over. She came over and I chain smoked cigarettes, we walked down to the park close to our house that over looked Manhattan. We couldn't see much because there was too much smoke, and then there was more smoke and the smell....it was a smell like gasoline and burnt plastic. The towers had fallen.

My sister was able to finally get Teddy on the phone, what in my memory seems like hours later. I cried with relief. I wanted him home, I wanted to be home, back in Alabama where things were safe and no one tried to kill you with an airplane. We waited for hours, me sitting in my bay window peering out to see if I could see Teddy. One of the big wigs from his job was going around picking up people who lived in NJ and taking them all home, they came over the GWB and I think he was home by maybe 9 PM that night. I was relieved he was home and so ANGRY that he was expected to go back to work the next day.

I was scared for a long time after that, I remember a year later when the blackout happened I started having a panic attack because I just knew someone was bombing us. I was very afraid for a long time of being attacked, and I was very nervous about riding the subway. After a few years the constant worry subsided and we felt proud for staying and sticking it out. We belonged to a group of people that told our stories every year. We started to love where we lived, and we swore we would never leave.

That is how I remember it.