I was a newlywed. Walking around in that lovey dovey newlywed haze. My alarm was the morning news station and they were saying that there was a terrible accident in NY. A plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. How awful I thought. I turned off the radio and ran out the door to work–I am the kind of person that sleeps in until the very last possible minute.
I worked at Telus(the phone company) answering phones. When I arrived that morning, the phones were eerily quiet. As you can imagine, there was always a long wait to talk to a representative, so everyone was looking at each other so confused. What is going on? Why is no one calling? And, then, the light flashed indicating a caller and I picked it up. A woman was hysterical. We were under attack. What was she to do? Where was she to go? I had no earthly idea what she was talking about. Until she mentioned NY and the World Trade Center. I calmly told her that she was mistaken. What happened in NY was an accident. She should not panic. She calmed down and thanked me for my assistance and hung up. Weird I thought. Why would she phone us? I explained to all of my coworkers(most of whom had started an hour earlier than I and had not heard the news) about the accident in NY. Oh my…how does that happen? Let’s check CNN online. Nothing. We couldn’t get through. Not to a single internet news agency. What??? We were so disconnected(this was 10 years ago, remember). And, then it came…the announcement that as one of the tallest buildings in Calgary we were on alert. People were free to go home for the day. Many did…for those of us who remained, they brought in a television so we could understand what was going on. I stayed. I had no tv at home. And, I sent panicked emails to my friends in NY. There was some confusion…but it didn’t take long to confirm that they were all okay. I’d like to say that I breathed a sigh of relief, but I didn’t. I’m still holding my breath over this one.
10 years later let’s remember the positive–how the world grieved together. The outpouring of love and positivity for our fellow man that followed. And, let’s try to hang on to some of that as we go forward.
~ Dana