Today is September 11, 2012. To others outside of the United States it is a normal and uneventful day. To us it will always resonate fear and sadness because today eleven years ago terrorist came into our country and used our own planes to kill so many of us. I can not even begin to imagine the fear in the eyes of the passengers on the planes and those working diligently at their desks in the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. A moment in time that changed our history and our lives. How would we move on and how we would continue as a nation? Well, that was answered very shortly after everything happened. Strangers became heroes our New York fire department and police department ran into buildings when so many were trying to run out. They reassured everyone that everything was going to be fine. The courage it took to do what they did that day is a true representation of who we were as a country and how we would respond.
I can remember very clearly where I was that day. It was an overcast day in Kentucky and I was a preschool teacher. In the kitchen they had turned on two small televisions and all of us teachers would watch the children while one or two of us ran to watch what was taking place on the television. I was watching when the first tower went down and I turned away and just wanted to be with the little ones in my classroom. I looked at them playing, these four years old children had no idea that life had changed forever and they will never remember what it was like living before September 11, 2001. Very soon after the second tower fell the parents of the children started coming in to grab their kids. Some were crying and others were angry. All I remember was by early snack all the kids were gone for that day and at home their parents held on to them tight as they prayed to wake up tomorrow and see that this was all a bad dream.
Somewhere else a different feeling was being felt. My best friend was giving birth in an Oklahoma hospital. She was watching the towers engulfed in flames in the hospital room and she was trying to push out her first child. I remember her telling me that she watched the news and wondered how could she bring an innocent child into a world like this. Soon after the towers fell she was whisked away and delivered Julian Boyd Walker by cesarean on September 11, 2001. Today Julian is celebrating his eleventh birthday and he is an amazing child. He loves to laugh and is an amazing big brother to his sister Noellia. They were a family that was not touched by tragedy on this day but by joy.
Another angelic child was born on September 11, 2001. Christina Taylor Greene was brought into this world on such a tragic day. In the book about her life her mother wrote she was feeding her newborn as the first tower was hit. She also watched the tragedy of that day unfold from a hospital room. It was a day full of sorrow but how could you be sad when a new life was brought into the world as many wonderful lives left. As you may know Christina Taylor Greene was the youngest victim of the massacre at the Safeway store in Tucson Arizona where Gabriella Giffords was meeting with her community. Her mom and dad state in their book that her life was book ended by two horrible acts of violence. So today I can imagine they celebrate her memory as well as grieve for their loss as so many others do.
We were all touched on this day eleven years ago and for myself, I know that I will stop and remember what unfolded that day and remember how our world changed forever. As we mourn for those lost we also must remember that there was joy found for some on this day. Babies were born and the circle of life began all over. It is very easy to get swept up in the tears today and I myself have shed a few but I also focus and think of the families singing happy birthday to their eleven year old children. Now comes the hard task for those parents, they must explain to them why their birthday is so different than others. They are at that age of understanding and it is time to pass on the heroic and sad story of loss and triumph we felt as a nation eleven years ago today.
https://www.wepay.com/donations/danica-s-doctor-delima
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