remembering 9/11

oh to be so young that you don't remember...

I made my sista Jo late for work that day she worked across the st from the towers.  I like to think my lateness saved her life here is our story


My sista Jo and I lived 4 blocks apart in 2011.  She would catch the bus on the corner of my house to get her over to Penn station Newark to take the Path in.  At the time I worked in mid-town so I would take NJ Transit instead of Path which would get me to 34th st NYC Penn station & there I would take local subway to get me to Radio City Musical Hall (I worked across the st @ AXA) 53rd St & 6th Ave.  Well on this morning I drove by and saw my sista on the buss stop so I yell Jo get in and she says no you will make me late{I am notoriously late for EVERYTHING}so I lied and said "come on get in I won't make you late."  Well I still had to drop off J at school she was laying in my backseat and stop at the mac (ATM) j needed lunch $$ and get my morning coffee....

So yes I made her late and she bitched and moaned the whole time.  She was on the last PATH train that ran that morning her train ended up being stopped at Exchange Place she watched as the towers came down from just across the river.  

I was well on my way to office and when I walked into my building everyone was gathered in lobbies just watching TV's I of coarse not realizing what in the world was going on kept walking and went to my desk when I finally decided to go see what all the commotion was about I witnessed the first tower come down.  It was all so surreal after that I grabbed my purse and phone and walked out of my building I was on a mission to to get my sister (at the time I had no idea she had not made it into city) I kept trying to call her or my mom and wasn't getting any signal.  As I am walking down 6th ave my phone finally rings it was my mother's boss her first question where are you exactly I said I'm on my way to get Jo she says stop Jo is in Jersey please come home I cant begin to tell you the relief that went thru me I started crying and told her ok I would get home.  

Of coarse not knowing NY had been shut down there was no getting in or out I had already walked 20 blocks and was near 34th St so I headed to Penn Station it was closed down and people were standing in the street about 2,000 deep (no idea if this was a real # it was crowded from one side of the street to the other there were no cars able to move threw these streets) it was that packed with people.  I'll tell you people were scared but nice to each other.  We were all stuck but we were alive...we were all there for hours it was sometime in the afternoon when trains started to run again I was on the first NJ Transit train to leave the city

My heart goes out to all the families of the victims of this day.  And my heart soars for my family that we were graced by GOD enough to all be alive today

today I work in that building ^^ with the square tower (lower left hand corner of above picture) here is the view of memorial from our tower today