Do you remember where you were 7 years ago?

Ok, I couldn't let Heather Mills completely have the day and my blog. I just couldn't help remembering where I was 7 years ago. Where were you? Do you remember what you were doing, what you felt, what you saw the day the World Trade Center Towers were hit and subsequently fell? I do. I was six months pregnant with my son Tanner. It was my first pregnancy, and everything regarding my pregnancy was strained. It was not a planned pregnancy, and Tanner's father and I were not together. It was a very bittersweet time in my life. Here I was carrying the most precious of miracles in my belly, but I wasn't married, I was alone and was very afraid. I was working for CNA Insurance Company. My office was in the buildings at Park and Ridgeway. Every morning, I stopped at the McDonald's to get a sweet tea, and sometimes a bisquit. I ate breakfast at the house, but was often hungry again by the time I got to work. I had stopped for my tea, and the lady working the drive thru made a peculiar comment. I always made small talk, but didn't understand what she was saying. She said that her daughter working in one of the towers of the World Trade Center, and she hoped she was ok. I didn't understand. It seemed random. When I apologized and asked what she was talking about, she looked at me with a very stunned look. She realized I didn't know. When she told me, I remember looking down at my belly. I had my green sweater on. It was my favorite preggo shirt. This I do remember. I don't remember even driving the rest of the way to my office right around the corner. The next thing I remember is hurrying to get in the building and upstairs where my two co-workers, Clint and Nina, were. We were a small office, but very close. Clint and Nina had the radio on. When I heard for myself the anchor on the radio telling the story of what was going on in New York I was overcome with fear. We managed to find a TV somewhere. By the time we got the TV hooked up, we were just in time to see the second plane hit the second tower. At this point, I thought this was going to be the end, or at least the beginning of the next World War. I can't tell you what was going through my mind as I watched that screen. There was so much smoke, fire, fear, and chaos. Watching those people trapped by the flames concede to the fact that they were not going to make it and take charge of their fate by jumping to their impending death, was so frightful. I can't tell you what was going through my mind, because it was so overloaded I can't pinpoint my thoughts. But I can tell you I stood in front of that television, and quietly cried.

Shortly after the attacks in New York and Washington, I was doing some major cleaning (you know, I was now in my 7th almost 8th month, and had begun nesting). I came across some photos I had stuck in a box in my closet. There were all kinds of pictures I had been looking for in that box. There would turn out to be a tremendously special group of photos hidden within this dusty box I had found. In 1999, I had traveled to New York City. The guy I had been dating here in Memphis, had taken a job with TVT Records in New York. It was the first and only time I visited him. Because I had been only 10 years old the first time I was in New York, there were some tourist spots I wanted to revisit. We had taken the ferry over to Staten Island to see the Statue of Liberty. It was a brisk, fairly breezy spring day. He took a ridiculous amount of pictures of me on the ferry as we crossed back to the city. I remembered the day, but I had forgotten the pictures. All of those pictures! All of those pictures he had taken of me had both towers in the background. Every one of them. Can you believe that? All of them.

Everytime I look at those pictures, I remember that day. I keep one on my refrigerator to help me remember. Like many Americans, I don't want to forget what that day felt like. Take time today to remember. Where you were, what you were doing and thinking, what you felt, and what you saw. Remember all those that lost their life, and take a moment to silently pray.