Eight Years Later

I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing that day. I live eight miles from our nation's capital and I grew up in Upstate New York.

On September 9, 2001, I was laying in bed with my husband and newborn baby and the phone rang. It was my mother-in-law and she said, "Turn on the news." I turned it on just in time to see the second plane crash into the second tower. I was devastated. My little brother lived in Tribeca, right down the street from there. Then, my husband's cell rang. It was my brother-in-law. He was driving through Arlington, VA just a few miles from my home through a small tunnel that passed the Pentagon. He said,"Oh my God. I think I just saw a plane crash into the Pentagon. I just came through the tunnel and there was a lot a smoke." I used to take the metro to work. I just quit my job to stay home with my new baby. The place where I would catch the train was in the Pentagon. I had probably sat next to some of the people that died that day.

When I was a little girl, my father owned a couple of businesses in New York City and when we would drive into the city my father would always say, "Look Baby. There they are (The Towers)!" You knew you were headed to the Big Apple and your adventure would be starting. They were the welcoming arms into that city.

All I can say is that I think about that time and how it affected me. I watched our President and the mayor of New York and the firefighters, law enforcement and our military and I was proud that in all of that chaos, I found strength in watching the love and pride of our nation pull together. I found a new love for my country.

God Bless us all.