My Memories of September 11th

From 9/11 Museum. Antenna from World Trade Center tower in front of the shades of blue sky art display.

On September 11, 2001 our mom had been in Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, NJ since the day before when she was operated on for colon cancer. The news wasn’t good, it was going to be a hard day.

That morning was gorgeous. The sky was crystal blue, cloudless and there was no humidity; a perfect beach day. I was at my mom’s getting ready to go over to the hospital when my sister called. “Turn on the TV, a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center”, she said.  “How awful.”She called again as the second plane hit and we realized like so many others that this wasn’t an accident.

As I drove the few miles to the hospital I turned on the radio to NJ101.5. Jim Gearhart was on and relaying bits and pieces of information as he received them.  No one knew what was happening.  It was chaotic and I remember praying out loud as I drove.

Up in my mother’s room the television was turned on to the horror going on across the river. We were just told that she had only nine to eighteen months left to live and she was trying to be very positive and comforting to us. It should have been the other way around but that was her way. The windows in her corner room faced the Atlantic Ocean to the east and NY City to the north. When we looked to the left, we could see the smoke from the city skyline in the distance. There was a little boat in the ocean. The sunlight was dancing across the water like little diamonds and I remember wondering if the people on board were oblivious to what was going on just across the river.

As we watched as the first tower came down my mother said that what she was going through paled in comparison to what was happening in NY.

There are other things that I remember from that day like how my mom told me that her roommate who had just had a double mastectomy cried all night. Also, her roommate didn’t have insurance and therefore wasn’t given the little bucket of toiletries that all patients receive, so my mother gave her the lotion and powder from her own bucket. I also remember that a doctor came in while the news was on and made a distasteful comment about what was going on. When the plane crashed in Somerville, PA I panicked because my kids were in school in Somerville, N.J. So many bits and pieces from that fateful day.

I also remember that the hospital evacuated all patients with non- life threatening illnesses or injuries to make room for the patients from NY who never came.We bundled up our mom and drove her back home. The road was empty.

Three thousand souls were lost that day in NY, Washington and PA. May we always honor and remember them. The world changed forever on September 11, 2001.