Forget me not.

Wikipedia Photo by Bernhard Kohl 

My original plan was to sleep through today. The neighbor's contractor had other plans for me. The sound of hammers and the jarring sounds of 2x4's being dropped  was the first noises I heard this morning. I walked into the kitchen and hubby was watching the "replay" of that horrible morning's events. So, since it seems I can't escape it.... I will write.

We all remember where we were and what we did that day. I remember being home alone. My husband left for work at 6am, I'd finished cleaning up after breakfast and had just sat down with my tea to watch the Today Show. I remember flipping channels and seeing a report on another station about a small aircraft hitting one of the Twin Towers. The nauseated feeling in the pit of my stomach began as I changed the channel back to see if the Today Show had any more information. Then moments later, it happened again.... then once more in Pennsylvania. I remember a lot of things from that day, like the silence in the air. I'm not just talking about the lack of aircraft. Even the birds were silent that day.. it was eerie. There are a lot of things I wish I could forget... like watching people leap out of buildings and watching the world we knew come to an end.

One memory in particular stands out from that day. I remember an Ernst and Young Associate that I'd spoken to while working as a Corporate Travel Agent for American Express a couple of years prior to the attacks. The day we spoke the fire alarms went off in my building. When he asked what the noise in the back ground was, I answered "it's just the fire alarm.. it's no big deal" and explained that it had been the third one that day. Unfortunately, fire alarms and bomb threats were an almost weekly occurrence for us, we had a "prankster" in the building. Many in the building had become complacent about leaving when the alarms went off.. me included. He became really upset with me and asked which floor I was on. When I said it was the 9th floor, he scolded me for staying. He insisted I take his phone number, and leave the building immediately. I did as he asked and got down to the lobby, only to be told to return to my desk... it was another false alarm. When I called him back he informed me that he was based at the World Trade Center and  had been in the building during the previous attempt on the WTC in 1993. He said I should never take those alarms for granted and made me promise to leave the building when they went off again. I never heard from him after that day. I left that job in 1999.

On September 11th, 2001... I remembered him. He was the first person that came to mind. I prayed for him. I wondered if he was in the building and hoped he made it out. I'm embarrassed to say, I don't remember his name. But I do remember his voice and his advice... "get out of the building"... and hope that he did.