Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The 9/11 blog

Everyone has there 9/11 story.
This is mine.

I woke up to the phone ringing, it was really early so I didn't think much of it. I had stayed the night before up at my parent's house and they had all left for work. The answering machine had clicked on and whoever it was hung up. I decided I should probably get up. As I got to kitchen the phone rang again. I answered it.. it was the dentist confirming an appointment I think my stepdad had. I hung up.. not more than 3 minutes later the phone rang again. This time I decided not to answer it and let the machine get it... after all it wasn't my house and no one ever called there for me.

Beeeeppppp. It was my stepdad and this was the message.

"Hey are you awake, can you hear me. Turn on the TV someone just said that a plane flew into your mom's building. Call me back"

That was where I was when it happened. I was standing in the living room in disbelief. No way.

At lot of the day is a blur.. it just all kind of blends together, cuz everything seemed to happen so fast.

I turn on the tv.. just as the second plane is going through the second tower. That one was my mom's building. I call my stepdad and tell him what I'm watching.. he tells me he's leaving work and headed home. I try and call my mom and no one answers at her desk. So I call her cel... I hear it ringing.... from my purse. I forgot that I had borrowed it from her and never got to give it back to her before she left for work. There was no way to get in touch with her.

All this was before 9 am.
So we waited.. and waited. Everyone started calling the house... asking if I had heard from her. No. That was so hard.. having to get answer everyone questions when I had no answers. At that point I was all by myself in the house, trying to hold myself together for everyone else's stake, still wondering where my mom was. If she was ok.

My stepdad got home. My husband at the time.. drove up from our house as soon as he saw what happened. I was glued to the TV... looking at people in the street, seeing if I could recognize her.

That's when her building collasped. At that point I started screaming, I don't remember exactly what I was screaming I just remember screaming and falling to ground. My ex came over and had to hold me to keep me as calm as he could.

My stepdad started telling me.. that wasn't her tower. Her tower was still standing. No, I knew that was her building.. but he kept telling me that it wasn't. I guess I wanted to believe that.. and calmed me down a little. I still don't know to this day if he was trying to calm me down or if he really didn't know... I was right that was her building.

So we waited some more. Then the other tower fell. At that point there was nothing I could do. The phone kept ringing and still no mom, and still no answers for everyone who called. About 11/1130am a call came from my stepdad's office. My mom had called his office thinking he was still there, she was calling from a payphone and there was a line but she wanted to let everyone know she was ok and could his secretary call the house. She would try to call again as soon as she could get farther away from what is now known as Ground Zero.

What had happened to my mom?

She was at her desk on the 54th floor when someone on her floor had said that there was some kind of explosion in the other tower. They didn't know it was a plane at that point because of where the plane hit and where they were in the other building.

She was in the building when the bomb went off in '93 so she and her co workers were like.. we're outta here. They decided staying in the building wasn't the best idea.. so they went to the stairwell and started down.

I'm not sure how many floors down they had gotten when they had made an announcement staying that a plane had accidently hit the tower and it was an isolated incident and it was safe to go back to your desks.

Thank god they didn't go back.

They kept going down and at about the 30th floor there was this loud noise and the building started to shake uncontrollably. They held on to the bannister and waited for the shaking to stop. That was when the second plane hit her tower. Eventually it stopped and they made their way down... and out. She said that the firefighters that day were amazing and if it wasn't for them keeping everyone calm a lot of people would've lost it.

She made it out of the building approx 15/20 minutes before it came down. She started walking and eventually found a phone to call us. She had actually called my Uncle first because he was in a building about 15 blocks from where she was and she knew he could see everything from his windows.

He never called any of us. I dont remember what the reason was.

She managed to call my stepdads office.. then after walking a little more she managed to call the house. It was so great just to hear her voice.

They had the city on lockdown and there was no way out. She ended up walking up to my cousins' apartment which was really far from where the towers were. The next day my stepdad managed to get into the city and get her.

Finally she was home.
She was ok.
She lost friends that day. ..
I never take her for granted anymore knowing how close I was to losing her
.. and I never take her cel phone anymore....just in case
The end

10 comments:

Just a Girl in a Port said...

There are just no words. What a personal story. Thank you for sharing and thank God for your mother's safety.

Ana said...

Wow, that's crazy. Glad your mom made it out safe! This is definitely a day I'll never forget, either.

KJ said...

Wow. Talk about close to home... I am so glad your mom made it out ok. Thank you so much for sharing!

wendy said...

Oh. Your mom was right there. I am shocked. How scary for your family and so many others. Wow.

AMYALEXIS said...
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AMYALEXIS said...
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AMYALEXIS said...
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jlc said...

Wow. You're mom has an incredible story. Just 15/20 min later. Thank goodness she ignored the announcement and kept traveling down the stairs.

.... said...

What an amazing story...your family is truly blessed, thank you for sharing it.

~asw

Armygurl said...

wow. I never knew this story about you. That is an amazing experience your family endured! I feel so much for the pain, and confusion you must have been having in those moments. I got a bit teary-eyed reading this & I still have a hard time hearing stories or seeing footage of that day. Thanks for sharing.