Originally posted 9/11/2006
I was only a year old when Kennedy was assassinated. I don't remember it. But growing up it was the question people always asked each other.
Where were you when Kennedy was shot? But that's not the question we ask each other now.
September 11, 2001 was a perfect early-fall-blue-sky-fresh-air kind of day. I dropped Drew off at Kindergarten and went for a run through the winding streets of Marblehead and up around Fort Sewell. I stopped at the tip of the fort overlooking the harbor, the islands and the lighthouse. It was gorgeous.
I watched a plane circling overhead. It had just taken off from Logan Airport. I remember thinking how much I loved it when flights I took for business took me out over Marblehead when I was leaving. I used to look down from the window and imagine what the kids were doing. I'd pick out the buildings of their schools, our house, the field at the end of our street. It always made me feel better about leaving...knowing that they were safe in our little town.
Was that plane Flt. 11? A flight both Bob and I had flown many times from Boston to Los Angeles? The first plane to hit the towers? Or was it Flt. 175, the second plane?
I got home, showered and then the phone rang. It was Bob calling from his office in Beverly. Out of sheer luck he was not traveling that day. He said, "Turn on the TV."
Flight 11 had just hit the north tower.
In the days and weeks that followed, it amazed me how many of us knew people that were killed. How interconnected we all are.
A colleague of Bob's was killed in the towers that morning. Two Marbleheaders were killed on Flt. 175, one was the father of a little girl that went to the same school as Drew. Another was a young doctor.
That morning, I may have looked up at them, before they knew their horrific fate. I picture them looking down at Marblehead from the plane. I bet they picked out their houses, the school and Abbot Hall's clock tower. I bet they felt that deep, abiding connection to the people they loved.
Where were you on September 11th?
We will never forget.
Originally posted 9/11/2006
3 comments:
Very beautifully written, Maura. I just got chills.
September 10th I was working in the Pentagon...
I was in a government computer class on the morning of September 11th. All our pagers started going off.
A marine guard in full battle gear, including an M4A1, came and told us, "The United States is under attack. They have hit NY and the Pentagon. We are evacuating."
And the world shifted...
The world did indeed shift, Marty - thanks for your story. And thanks for being the only friend who can post to my blog directly by hacking it - heh. Guess that's why you've worked in the Pentagon.
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