Give Sorrow Words:
The Day America Changed
September 11, 2001
Tuesday
It was 4:30 on Tuesday morning. I was tired, but hadn't been to bed yet for the day. I had taken a nap this afternoon, and was just getting myself settled for the few hours of sleep left to me. I clicked my light off, and my brain immediately clicked on. I started thinking about my mother, and thinking that if anything suddenly happened to me, would she know how much I love her? Would she know that she was my hero? I lay there, waiting for sleep to claim me, but it wouldn't come. I don't know, necessarily, that I sensed my life was going to change, but I did know that if it did change, I wanted mom to know how I felt. I switched my light on, and got out pen and paper. I tried to express how much she has meant to me thoughout my life, even though we have not always seen eye-to- eye. As I turned off the light again at 5:30, I felt better. If I died right now, she would see my poem, and know that she had been loved by me. I had taken it out of my notebook so I could email it to her after work this afternoon. I settled down and immediately fell asleep.
My alarm went off at 9 am, telling me to get in the pool, and as I lay in bed for a minute before the start of my day, I heard the deejay on the radio break into the song playing with news that the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane. I sat straight up in bed, thinking, "Oh My God!" Which if you know anything about me, is a miracle because I am so disoriented in the mornings that I have gotten up an hour early and thought I was late for work. Later, at work, on my second day of waitressing at this diner, I was watching the news of what was happening when one of the regulars came in. Now granted, I didn't know this man from Adam, but the woman I was training with did. Barbara was talking to
him in the typical down-home Southern way, and she happened to mention that I had relatives in both New York and Virginia. I thought nothing of it, and we started to get busy. About an hour later, this regular flags me down and offers me his phone card so that I could call my family. I was so touched by this random act of caring, especially after the events of the morning, that I felt tears burning my eyes. I thanked him profusely while I refused, trying to get away before I broke down and cried for all the people dead, and an act of kindness amongst the horror of the day.
Last updated: 09/16/01