102 minutes that changed America.
Some of you know that my husband and son and I were supposed to be in New York City on September 11th. My husband had planned a surprise wedding anniversary trip to New York for our 10th wedding anniversary. Our anniversary is on the 7th, which fell on a Friday. I had a wedding on Saturday the 8th and our plan was to leave after my wedding and drive to Dallas and spend the night on the 8th. Then get up early and fly to New York on the 9th and stay the 9th, 10th, 11th and fly back home on the 12th.
At the time my husband was a Pilot with United Airlines. We were flying Standby and taking our son with us for 3 days in the "Big Apple".
Then the strangest thing happened to me. While at the wedding on the 8th, I began to feel weak, and turned very pale and barely was able to finish shooting the wedding. Myassistants eyes widdened as she said "You Look so pale!" asked me what was wrong. I had to sit in my car for about 10 minutes to regain my strength before I could drive home.
My assistant and I left and I made the drive home of about 12 miles (which seemed like an eternity) .....and once I got home, I felt really really bad.
All our suitcases were packed and ready to go, and my son greeted me at the door! He was all excited about the trip. My husband took one look at me and said "Mommy doesn't look so good!"
So we did not leave that evening. We waited until the next morning. Well all night I felt horrible! Achy and fever. I even moved from our bed, to the couch, to a recliner, to the floor back to the couch during the night trying to get comfortable.
When the alarm went off at 6 am, I was on fire with fever!
My husband made the decision for us not to go to New York. Our son was devastated.
He was only 8 years old and really excited about seeing the Big Toys R Us store and FAO Schwartz and central park, etc.
My husband took me to the emergency room and I had a fever of 103.6. They x-rayed me and I had PNEUMONIA!
(For some history on me, I rarely ever get sick. In fact I hardly ever even catch a cold! I eat healthy and get rest and just don't get sick. But I had phenomena! Where did I get that in September?
So we didn't go.
I remember sitting on the couch on Tuesday morning when My husband drove our son to school. (little 3rd grader then!) and he was mad he had to go to school. And I saw the Today show and Katie Couric talking about the Tower. When my husband came home, he stared in disbelief! He knows the air traffic pattern in New York. You basically follow the Hudson River. How could a plane get so far off course? He said its impossible!
It was a clear day! No FOG! At the time, we all still thought it was a small plane. A single engine plane with a lone pilot. No one had said anything about it being an Airliner! The first plane was an American airlines plane, then we saw it. THE UNITED AIRLINES PLANE HIT the 2nd tower. We could not believe it! Then I said it out loud" Maybe its terrorists and they are doing it on purpose!" (I even said Maybe they are flying out of somewhere like BOSTON! Later found out the did! I still dont know why I said that.)
Then I realized something..... I realized that according to our itinerary, we would of been down in that area. Near the World Trade Center buildings, seeing wall street, and the statue of liberty. We would of had a front row seat of the whole horrible experience.
Oh My Goodness....
If I had not of gotten Pneumonia, my husband, little boy and myself would of been right in the middle of the whole nightmare.
My husband was grieving for his fellow pilots, flight attendants and the passengers. He was on the telephone with the chief pilot of United.
We were numb, we were scared, and we were in a way grateful, that we spared our son the horror that unfolded that day.
We will never forget. We made the decision shortly after for my husband to return to the United States Air Force. Its been 7 years... and we will never forget those innocent people, who were going about their lives. Just going to work and living their lives. and how they were struck down on American soil. We can never let this happen again.
Thank Heavens for our brave men and women who serve in the military who put themselves into harms way to protect us from those who wish us ill will.
exactly 2 months later we did take that trip to New York and we saw the devastation first hand. I took lots of pictures. It was eerie and the dust and debris were a mess, even 8 weeks later.
Ill never forget it. Someone wrote in the dust on a stores front glass "WTC Never Forget"
Let us NEVER FORGET.
Here's a link to a documentary called 102 Minutes that changed America.
http://tv.clevver.com/video/217448/102-minutes-that-changed-america-preview-3.php
Some of you know that my husband and son and I were supposed to be in New York City on September 11th. My husband had planned a surprise wedding anniversary trip to New York for our 10th wedding anniversary. Our anniversary is on the 7th, which fell on a Friday. I had a wedding on Saturday the 8th and our plan was to leave after my wedding and drive to Dallas and spend the night on the 8th. Then get up early and fly to New York on the 9th and stay the 9th, 10th, 11th and fly back home on the 12th.
At the time my husband was a Pilot with United Airlines. We were flying Standby and taking our son with us for 3 days in the "Big Apple".
Then the strangest thing happened to me. While at the wedding on the 8th, I began to feel weak, and turned very pale and barely was able to finish shooting the wedding. Myassistants eyes widdened as she said "You Look so pale!" asked me what was wrong. I had to sit in my car for about 10 minutes to regain my strength before I could drive home.
My assistant and I left and I made the drive home of about 12 miles (which seemed like an eternity) .....and once I got home, I felt really really bad.
All our suitcases were packed and ready to go, and my son greeted me at the door! He was all excited about the trip. My husband took one look at me and said "Mommy doesn't look so good!"
So we did not leave that evening. We waited until the next morning. Well all night I felt horrible! Achy and fever. I even moved from our bed, to the couch, to a recliner, to the floor back to the couch during the night trying to get comfortable.
When the alarm went off at 6 am, I was on fire with fever!
My husband made the decision for us not to go to New York. Our son was devastated.
He was only 8 years old and really excited about seeing the Big Toys R Us store and FAO Schwartz and central park, etc.
My husband took me to the emergency room and I had a fever of 103.6. They x-rayed me and I had PNEUMONIA!
(For some history on me, I rarely ever get sick. In fact I hardly ever even catch a cold! I eat healthy and get rest and just don't get sick. But I had phenomena! Where did I get that in September?
So we didn't go.
I remember sitting on the couch on Tuesday morning when My husband drove our son to school. (little 3rd grader then!) and he was mad he had to go to school. And I saw the Today show and Katie Couric talking about the Tower. When my husband came home, he stared in disbelief! He knows the air traffic pattern in New York. You basically follow the Hudson River. How could a plane get so far off course? He said its impossible!
It was a clear day! No FOG! At the time, we all still thought it was a small plane. A single engine plane with a lone pilot. No one had said anything about it being an Airliner! The first plane was an American airlines plane, then we saw it. THE UNITED AIRLINES PLANE HIT the 2nd tower. We could not believe it! Then I said it out loud" Maybe its terrorists and they are doing it on purpose!" (I even said Maybe they are flying out of somewhere like BOSTON! Later found out the did! I still dont know why I said that.)
Then I realized something..... I realized that according to our itinerary, we would of been down in that area. Near the World Trade Center buildings, seeing wall street, and the statue of liberty. We would of had a front row seat of the whole horrible experience.
Oh My Goodness....
If I had not of gotten Pneumonia, my husband, little boy and myself would of been right in the middle of the whole nightmare.
My husband was grieving for his fellow pilots, flight attendants and the passengers. He was on the telephone with the chief pilot of United.
We were numb, we were scared, and we were in a way grateful, that we spared our son the horror that unfolded that day.
We will never forget. We made the decision shortly after for my husband to return to the United States Air Force. Its been 7 years... and we will never forget those innocent people, who were going about their lives. Just going to work and living their lives. and how they were struck down on American soil. We can never let this happen again.
Thank Heavens for our brave men and women who serve in the military who put themselves into harms way to protect us from those who wish us ill will.
exactly 2 months later we did take that trip to New York and we saw the devastation first hand. I took lots of pictures. It was eerie and the dust and debris were a mess, even 8 weeks later.
Ill never forget it. Someone wrote in the dust on a stores front glass "WTC Never Forget"
Let us NEVER FORGET.
Here's a link to a documentary called 102 Minutes that changed America.
http://tv.clevver.com/video/217448/102-minutes-that-changed-america-preview-3.php
No comments:
Post a Comment