My mind is so easily attached to a memorable lyric. When I think about September 11th, the one lone line from Alan Jackson’s tribute song, “Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?” always begins to resonate within my heart.
“Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?”
Where was I? I was in the belly of a hospital in a new town far away from all my family friends. I had just moved two months earlier to Ohio from Washington DC. I was fortunate to have a cell phone for work purposes, but in 2001 cell phones did not get a good signal indoors and during that morning I happened to be interpreting in the lower levels of the hospital. No signals and no TV’s in the waiting room.
I can honestly say I have very little concept of time and when, what and how things happened. My assignment ended, I headed up to a beautiful sunny day. I remember sun shining brightly in my car. As I exited the hospital, my cell phone caught a signal and began vibrating wildly with multiple alerts. I got in my car and started to listen to messages…
“Melanie, it’s Josh, Call me now.”
There were others, but in that message there was a sound of panic, a sound of worry. My heart raced a little, I called back. He answered and began to say things, like, “Did you see the news? Airplane hit a building, in New York, the World Trade Center, Missy works there…Missy… Your Missy.”
Her name bounced around in my head, I looked out the windows, the sun was glaringly bright, people were behaving normally, there didn’t seem to be any catastrophe. Everything from my perspective was, well, normal.
He was still talking in my ear and at some point the pieces began to come together and I started to understand. A plane had hit The World Trade Center in New York and the building was crumbling but most importantly, along with the other thousands of faceless strangers, somewhere in those buildings, possibly, was one of my sister-friends, my Missy.
I am not going to lie and tell you before that morning I had one iota of an idea where Missy worked. I knew she worked some bank’s headquarters in NYC but I had never paid attention to where and what. However, my MBA level economics boyfriend had, he knew and because he had family who lived in NYC, he was very familiar with where things were, so he and Missy had talked about all that and he knew and now so did I.
Enter time warp…. I called into my office, they were already aware of what had happened. I was told to come back in to work and wait to see if my assignments that day were cancelled. Seeing I had only worked there for 2 months, I didn’t want to rock the boat so I obeyed. Once there, I say in a tiny room, surrounded by virtual strangers and watched the days events unfold…wondering and waiting to know where my dear friend was.
Within a couple of hours and a insane amount of phone calls, my other friends and I had confirmed that indeed Missy worked at the WTC and that for certain she had gone into work that morning. Other than that we didn’t know much.
Panic had set in, tears were coming. It was only a short time earlier in our lives that we had lost our other sister friend, Jenny in a tragic car crash. We, as a group were still raw. Still broken. Still hurting. For me the thought of losing another person was more than I could handle.
I sat in that office, broken, lost for the majority of the day. Watching, waiting, calling, begging to be able to go home to my comfort zone. I imagined the worst. I called my other girls, we cried, we pleaded to a God I did not know yet, and we waited for any news…
Around 3:00 that afternoon, my phone rang, it was Daisy, she had talked to someone, who had talked to someone, who had talked to Missy’s mom and she was safe.
{{{RELIEF}}}
Relief washed over me like tidal wave breaking parts of me permanently, forever, and at the same time changing me for the better. Changing us as a country forever. Broken we were but able to heal, to pick up the pieces, to move forward.
I am not going to tell Missy’s story here. It is still not something she talks about. I offered her this space if she wanted it. She graciously declined, saying maybe in another 10 years. She has shared pieces with me through the years on how her alarm hadn’t gone off, she was late, took a later train and because of her routine was just off a smidgen, she had survived. Amazing, simply amazing.
I know that 9/11 is far more about the survival on one person. It is about the unnecessary loss of so many others but for me, it was where I was on that day when the world stopped turning.
I am not going to tell Missy’s story here. It is still not something she talks about. I offered her this space if she wanted it. She graciously declined, saying maybe in another 10 years. She has shared pieces with me through the years on how her alarm hadn’t gone off, she was late, took a later train and because of her routine was just off a smidgen, she had survived. Amazing, simply amazing.
I know that 9/11 is far more about the survival on one person. It is about the unnecessary loss of so many others but for me, it was where I was on that day when the world stopped turning.
But I know Jesus and I talk to God
And I remember this from when I was young
Faith, hope and love are some good things He gave us
And the greatest is love
Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?
Do you have a 9/11 post you would like to share? Please join Totally Temberton and Sunshine Praises for a special memorial blog hop. Just click her and include your link.
Melanie,
I had just moved from Ohio to NC the beginning of September. My husband was at the hospital in training and I couldn’t reach him by cell — so much parallels your story. While I didn’t know anyone directly affected, 9-11 completely changed my life. My son says because of 9-11 I really became a mom — He means it in the best way. Not in a bad way. Thank you for the blog hop and allowing us to share. I pray we never forget where we were, physically, spiritually or emotionally. I pray that this year as we reflect we will reach out again with renewed love and passion, not inspired by fresh pain, but in the KNOWING that Jesus can see us through anything.
Love,
Karen
As I read the stories I see how we all felt similar things. There was a real bonding then and even today as we share our stories.
Thanks for sponsoring this hop.
Amazing! Thankyou so much for this wonderful idea.
Thank you so much for sharing. I am glad that your friend was spared that day.