As people look over their lives, certain events standout. Events that have had profound emotional, or personal, effect on their lives, to the extent that they can remember exactly where they were, who they were with, and/or what they were doing at the time and place when they first learned of that event. Such is the effect that September 11, 2001, had on most people who were alive at the time.
You may not have been at Ground Zero or at the Pentagon that day. You may not even have known anyone who was there. In fact, you may not even have been a citizen of U.S.A on that day. But regardless of who you were, that day likely had some kind of effect on you. Today we think of those whose lives were changed forever by the terrorist attacks on the twin towers, on the Pentagon, and on the plane that ended up in a field in Pennsylvania. We pray for those who are still hurting, and we also pray that events of this nature never happen again during our lifetime. We appreciate everyone who has responded to any of our posts. We have attempted to include most of these responses, and we apologize if we have overlooked any. Everyone has their own special memory, and to some degree it is cathartic to repeat them every year.
Thank you again for sharing your thoughts, emotions, and prayers.
Rebecca Dempsey: I was sitting in a chair working on homeschool homework and my cousin that lived down the road called my mom and said “Have you heard.” I’ll never forget watching the moment those towers crumbled and all the times they replayed it over and over.
Jim Boozer: I was at work and a customer said to watch the news alert.
Mike Hazelbaker: I was driving a coal truck and had a big load of coal on when it came over the radio.
I had to pull over and sit for a few minutes.
Michael Gardner: At work. Came through on radio. So shocking.
Hardly Madden: I was working a full time job at an automotive factory and was on lunch break when everything started to unfold! I watched as the first plane hit the World Trade Tower… then the second plane hit the other tower beside it, I watched as everything was burning and smoke rolling out of the mud section of the two towers! I toured that area when I was in High School on my senior trip. My heart sank as I watched it all happen, It was then our world forever changed. God Bless America Again!!
Jennifer Shaw: I was in high school. They came over the speaker and announced for all teachers to put their classrooms on lock-down and turn on their classroom TV. We were all watching as the second plane hit. I remember a lot of kids were terrified and crying, just trying to process what was happening.
Jimmy Whaley: I was working on base in Jacksonville, North Carolina, that morning. All of a sudden, the military police were everywhere, people were in a panic, then all civilians were asked to leave the base and all the base’s gates were closed.
Betty Jones: I was supervising my nursing students at the hospital. We were changing a patient’s dressing. The news came across the TV. We both broke down. I had to send the students home that day. All of us were in shock and scared.
Beverly Kay: I was teaching PreK and my kids were on the playground. I remember gathering them up and rushing to get back to the classroom to lock it down. So scared because my son was in 3rd grade at another district and I couldn’t leave.
Randall Christy:I was a teacher…. watching it on our library TV. It was so disturbing…and we all thought there might be more in other cities throughout the nation. One of my church members’ son was stationed in the Pentagon and was seriously injured.
Michelle Britt: I was a bookkeeper for H&R Block at the time and I was sitting at my desk when it happened. The district manager came in and asked me if I had heard about the planes crashing and I got sick to my stomach. Then I saw the aftermath on TV and all I could do was cry at the sight of people running to find shelter, all covered in soot. It was a rough time for everyone, emotionally and mentally.
Tom Walker: I remember watching the second plane hit the tower but I also remember being a member of the USAFAux getting pictures sent to me via email of ground zero from the air, taken the following day, and thinking, “What am I looking at?” It looked like a nuclear blast.
Larry Stewart: I was driving a tour bus with about 50 people on it, doing a tour of the Amish. We were about 50 miles from Shanskville, PA where the plane went down. It was just a few minutes after that when I heard what was going on. We were staying at a Mom and Pop hotel in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and when we got there everything was already closed. If it hadn’t been for the couple that owned the hotel, we would have had nothing to eat. The lady and her husband had just gone to the grocery store and shared what they had with all of us staying at that hotel. I will forever be greatful for them. God Bless the USA
Mary Campbell: Had finally made it home from Alaska around 4:00 a.m. and was sleeping, when my daughter called hysterical…..I couldn’t comprehend all she was saying except “TV!” and she was okay…….I turned on it just as the second plane hit…….I cried and prayed all day and for many days to come……never forget.
Tammie Roberts: I was at work when it happened. Our employer allowed us to watch it on TV. I was crying watching it all unfold before my eyes. It was a terrifying event and that the world was coming to a end. All I wanted to do was pray, to get my kids and call all my loved ones. I’ll never forget that day or all those who lost their lives to such evil actions. Let’s never forget and pray for those who lost their lives and their families and all that survived with serious life threatening medical issues. God bless them all.
Melinda Davis: I had just driven my children to school and was working in my office at home. I didn’t have the TV or radio on so I had no idea anything was going on. A lobbyist friend of mine called from downtown Atlanta, and said he couldn’t get anywhere near the capital. I asked him why. He asked me if I was watching the news.. had I not seen what was going on in New York? I was clueless. Then I saw the replay of the plane hitting the towers. That was about 10 a.m. All I could think of was keeping my children from seeing that horror. Scared me to death. I thought the world as we knew it was ending.
LaDonna Cooper: I was in a candle supply store purchasing wax and oil scents and the owner had a small television on. She screamed out then we all gathered round and watched it unfold and there wasn’t a dry eye in the place.
Billy Southerland: My dear wife passef away 2 months before it happened. A sad time for my girl and me. We were still not over our loss on 9/11 2001. Missing you, Maryann.
Bill Lehmkuhl: I was home getting ready to go to work at UNLV college in Vegas, when they phoned saying the college was shut down. They thought terrorists would hit a casino.
Patt Manzano: I was in my family room and just turned on the TV to the Today Show when the first plane hit. My husband and I watched that day with horror, sadness and, truthfully, fear, because we had no idea what this all would mean. We must NEVER forget.
Janice Rodman: I was home and didn’t have the tv on, and my husband called me and asked if I had tv on, and I said no, and he said turn it on. I sat and watched and cried. This was horrible.
Helen Willison: My husband and I were watching the Today Show, talking about our 25th Wedding Anniversary. I spent the day watching and praying. Did not celebrate our 25th.
Deb Ferreira: Watching on a TV at work…
Dianne Garner: I was home also watching Today show. When they told about it, I just felt numb for a long time. We watched it all day into night and the days that followed.
Byrl Crawley:Â I was at work with Schnucks…
Evelyn Wilcox: I was at my desk at the church.
Kay Remillard: Watching in sorrow and disbelief.
Yvonne Cox: I was working on the floor at Kmart. Our manager came out and told us. We couldn’t seem to concentrate on our jobs the rest of the day, different ones were in and out the employee lounge reporting the happenings. A very sad day to remember.
Kathy Gentry: Still is sad.
Wanda Powell: I was in bed. My department called and said, “Get in on the double: ‘STATE OF EMERGENCY'” Went to work on East Orange Police Dept. Had no idea what was happening. As Americans and as Police Officers, our lives changed that day forever. Then the Patriot Act! America will never be the same….worse day ever!
Marilyn June: Folding laundry – my hubby called and I still thought it was an accident. . until I saw the second plane hit.
Linda Brackett: I had just gotten to work and my boss said turn on the tv, and there it was. Unbelievable!
Ann McAlister: I was at home and my husband Robert called me and told me what had happened on that day of 9-11. May God help and bless rhe families of 9-11. Love, Ann
Serena Roberts: On my way into town to meet a friend. Heard it on the radio. I had to pull over because I couldn’t see the road through the tears. Once I got ahold of myself, I got back on the road and met my friend. We, along with a few others, watched as events unfolded, going through the emotions of shock, disbelief, sadness, anger, and sorrow. We cried, we prayed, and I was never more grateful for my family and friends than I was on that morning.
Edith McCullough: Working bible correspondence at Main Street Church of Christ.
Martha Dawson: Glued to the TV, compelled to watch from something within.
Barbara Polk: I was getting off from work in Kentucky where I worked at a nursing home.
Deborah Vaughn: I was almost home from work when the first plane hit the tower.
Jeanine Pearson: I was on my way to work.
Carole Hope: Working at Dr. Ernst, Yonchak and Halcom’s Endodontic office in Middletown.
Carole Hoffmann: I was on my way to work…..downtown Houston.
Dianne Boyd: Health spa
Pat Stum: Home watching Wishtv, channel 8 news.
Nancy Wood: Love that Allan Jackson song Where were you when the world stopped turning!
Margaret Flynn: SAD MEMORIES.
Emmaline Spencer: Terrible memories.
Geneva Walls: I remember sad time
June Hornee: I was home and my husband phoned me from work.
Karen Johnson: At home when police came over.
Vickie Alford: I was at the VA hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana, getting some tests done, when the planes hit the towers. The Air Force Base went into lock down mode due to this, and President Bush flying in from Florida. He was on his way back to the Capital and this was a stop over. They also locked down the VA Hospital where I was at right in the middle of a procedure. We watched it all unfold on the television.
Jackie Jolly: We were here at home. Our daughter Jana called us!
Emily Leeper: I was at work.
Terri Vance: I was at the church I worked for and received a phone call from home telling me to turn on the tv. I told the youth pastor to turn on his tv real quick. We watched in horror and disbelief as the plane pierced the second tower.
Betty King: At home in Danville, getting ready to go meet my new Doctor, Duncan.
Frances Nevels: Having breakfast with my husband before he left for work, when news broke in on Good Morning America!
Neal Putman: In Louisville, Kentucky, at the Hilton hotel in Louisville, getting ready to go out to NQC. Watched the second tower hit.
Ron Deveraux: I was at work before our store opened.
Penny MacDonald: I was teaching 6th grade at the Math-Science Magnet School in Grand Rapids, Mich. We were a late start school. I was walking down the hallway to my classroom and happened to look into a classroom that had the TV on. I couldn’t believe what I saw. The students would be entering for the day within 15 minutes. My teaching partner was frantic because his son worked for Reuters, whose main office was in the Twin Towers, and he could not contact him. As it turns out his son was out on assignment. Since that day I made a special emphasis to remember Sept. 11. I think of how my grandparents vividly remembered the bombing of Pearl Harbor and how, as a teenager, I didn’t grasp the significance. I didn’t want my students, who weren’t even born, to be indifferent to this tragic day. The greatest danger to our history is indifference.
Ron Hollis: We had just gotten home from Maui.
Phyllis Olson: Just starting chapel service at NQC in Louisville.
Joyce Stroud: Sad our churches are not as full as they were the Sunday after. So quick to forget.
Philip Jones: As I recall, the spike in church attendance lasted only a couple weeks….
Judy Ensminger: Teaching school!
Susan Smith: Walked into my doctor appointment and they had the tv on. I told a friend, who is also from N.Y., “What movie is that?” “Susan, it’s our world trade center.”
Elaine Lynch: I was camping with my first husband.
Alice Simmons: I was babysitting in my home and watching the news in Fort Wayne, Indiana. We found out that Sunday, that one of our mothers of a college girl was in Boston, and drove her BFF to the airport that day. Her friend was on Flight 175 that smashed into the W.T.C. in N.Y.C.
Holly Bowman: I had just gotten out of lab class in college, and saw where the first plane hit.
Dottie Hastings: Home with my husband.
Marjorie Tezak: I was in bed when my brother called me …I turned on the TV as the 1st tower collapsed. Took a while to sink in that this was a reality. My heart broke at the realization that all of the Firefighters, were on their way into the towers, were gone in a flash.
Deb Wayne: I was at my computer watching the news as it was happening and could not believe my eyes!
Jen Tatlock: In my grade five language arts class, when they rolled the tv in.
Tammie Conaway: I was sitting in the CARD(center for autism and related disabilites) office with my boy, watching it on there TV.
Delores Green: At work.
Sarina Jordan: I was at work.
Deborah Baker: My cable had been turned off. My pastor’s wife called me and told me what happened. I went to their house to watch for a while. Lines were forming at the gas station. People were afraid that another attack would come and was getting gas.
Christina Withrow: How sad and scary it was.
Bryan Stripes: How we all came together. That’s how it should be all the time.
Wanda Sutphin: I was at my mom’s house watching Good Morning America when Charles Gibson announced that we had been attacked.
Frances Linger: I was in the hospital in Statesville, N.C., recovering from an injection for pain in my back, when I heard the nurses talking, her mother had called her.
Charley Garner: Flying to N.Q.C. from Birmingham. Diverted and grounded in Cincinnati. Rode in a passenger van with 11 strangers. We learned details on the van’s AM radio. The McKameys sang “I’ve Won,” that night.
Bob Oliver: I was waking up, and was going to fly up to Washington State, to meet the guys of our group, The Cross Road Quartet to do several concerts, but all flights were canceled.
Glen Gobel: Scheduled to fly out of Seattle at 10:00 am to Washington, DC. for a convention.THAT didn’t happen…….
Michael Gardner: At work came through on radio. So shocking.
Lisa Denny: I was off work, and home doing housework, and I happened to have the tv on. I fixed some coffee to rest a minute or two, and saw the first plane hit, and I thought, oh, no, a plane crash. But as the second one hit, I watched in horror and disbelief as I soon realized this was no accident. I called my husband at work and I sat there for hours watching it unfold in shock. And of course, I cried out to God. I went inside the towers back in 1994, and I remember how massive they were, and couldn’t believe they just crumbled to the ground so quickly.
Beverly Kay: I was teaching PreK and my kids were on the playground. I remember gathering them up and rushing to get back to the classroom to lock it down. So scared because my son was in 3rd grade at another district and I couldn’t leave.
