Remembering 9/11

I've never been to New York. My mind's images of the island of Manhattan are a culmination of still shots and moving pictures on television shows, movies, and literature. Not once did I walk between the Twin Towers or see them from a sweeping view across the city's horizon. Yet the Twin Towers are embedded in my memory. They are the first pictures which come to mind when I recall the morning of September 11, 2001.

Like most Americans, it was a typical Tuesday morning. My husband was running late for work as I fed our one-year-old breakfast. I was four months pregnant with our son- combined with the fact that our daughter rarely slept, meant I was tired. So very tired. I picked my daughter up out of her highchair and wiped the remainder of Rice Krispies off of her chin before hoisting her onto my hip and turning on the television. What I first assumed to be a really bad movie, turned out to be real. My eyes widened while taking in shocking video of smoke billowing out of both Towers. I called to my husband just as the South Tower fell. "Oh my God," was the only thing I said, before beginning to cry.

It's been ten years. Yesterday my two older children asked what happened on September 11. It's a simple question which is hard for me to explain. How do you adequately convey the horror of that Tuesday, the despair as a third plane flew into the Pentagon, and then again as a fourth crashed into a field? The best answer I could offer them was, "September 11 changed everything."

My husband and I have been married for fifteen years. We've spent two of those years separated by the War on Terror. What our three children don't understand is that 9/11 was the catalyst for how our family is today. Just as I've never been to New York, my children don't know what it's like to have a dad who isn't gone for training every summer, who doesn't have to miss school programs because he's several states away with the Army. They live with the constant knowledge that with each passing year dad is home, it's one year closer to his next deployment. They also don't understand that the children, just like them, whose parents when to work that morning, but didn't come home, are just one of the reasons why I am proud to be married to a Soldier.

Today, I remember. I hope all of us who were alive on September 11 will never forget how we came together as a nation and held one another through our grief. I pray we will always remember the lives lost and the Soldiers who are still protecting us.

My reading recommendations for this September 11:
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
A remarkable novel written from the perspective of two Afghan women living under Taliban rule.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
September 11 is often referred to as the Pearl Harbor of our generation. Unbroken is a true story written about the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor in World War 2. A tale of hope, loss and resilience of The Greatest Generation, a title they undoubtedly deserve.