I posted as my status on Facebook the following:
Kathleen S. McGrath is remembering the tragedies of 8 years ago. 9-11-01/9-11-09 ---that they will never be forgotten. where were you when you heard? leave me your story.
I was over-whelmed with the responses. I promised I would not let what people shared be forgotten, so here are the stories...
"I was at work in Sharpsburg when I heard the news, Our boss said we could go home or stay there but he would suggest staying at work where everyone could stick together. I stayed but when I left for home there were hardly any cars on the road and no planes except for one jet flying sky high and above, I was worried about where all my kids were and I knew my husband was okay because he called me, He was actually really close to the Flight 93 crash- he worked in Latrobe at the time. My one son was in Pittsburgh and had a heck of a time getting out to come home, the other 3 were around here. The scenes from tv especially of the people jumping will forever remain in my mind, especially the one man who was way up and he kept looking out the window and looking back into the building as if he did not know what to do and their was only one option for him to take - thank God they did not show it. Terrible, Terrible day, first time I ever felt so vulneralble (sp) living in the States." - Dee Clark
"I lived in North Carolina, Greensboro. I was on my way to work and I had heard about it for the first time, that was when the second plane had crashed into the Twin Towers. Not long after I arrived to work I got a phone call from a co-worker stating that another plane had just crashed in Pittsburgh. It was awful! - Barbara J Johnson Wagoner
"I was in Columbus GA, Jenna and Sarah were just little babies. Max was going to a school there at Ft. Benning. I actually heard the news on Ivillage first and turned the t.v on real fast. I called my sister and we just watched together. I was terrified because for some reason I didn't think Max would come home to us that day, they were on lockdown at the base and I wanted him home with us. I was so happy when he finally walked into the door that evening. I will never forget the look on his face either because he knew that he would go to war over this. It was such a scary time for me and such a horrible time in our countries history.Remembering all the precious lives lost that day and our military men and women as well. - Holly Patkowski
"working at a daycare in penn hills, my boss's husband called and said "they flew a plane into the towers". Then he hung up. We got a tv and started watching the tragedy....how horrible....i had family that worked in the 2nd, but thank God, she wasn't there that day!!!! So many lives lost....prayers to all the families!!!! - Denise Scherrah
"Caitlyn had just turned 1 and we were living in Fort Drum, NY. My sister Sherry called and told me to turn on the TV. I thought for sure, it was an accident... then Cloyd called me from Egypt, and knew it was serious, it was terrorism. Then the second plane hit, and I knew there was no doubt. It is a day in my life that I will never forget. I didn't know if I should stay at the base or drive back to Pittsburgh, but Cloyd wanted me to stay on the base, we had security... felt we'd be safer there. - Camlie Chavez Smith
"I was at work, clowning around with a co-worker when Heather called me and told me to watch the news. We were stunned. I sat on the counter and watched as the 2nd tower was hit. My first thought was "Oh my God." I had a friend who's son was a chef at the top of one of the towers. I made frantic calls to see if he was okay. It was pure luck that he had taken that week of for vacation and was safe in bed at his parents house!" - Brenda Schimmel Underdown
"I was working silver springs maryland when I heard it over the radio. My first stop was to Circuit city to watch it on TV. My first few call were to Jenn, whos husband is a NYC ppolice office and Christy who working in NYC. Everyone was fine there. Working so close to DC I kept getting phone calls from friends and family. After the pittsburgh flight went down. All reps within 50 mile radius of NYC and Washingtotn DC were to go home. I spent the rest of the day wacthing on TV and praying with friends." - Tracy Stasik
"at school and they wouldn't let us turn on the tv's or talk about with the students. It was terrible...everyone had heard something but we could not talk about it." - Karen Beebe
"Just getting my coffee watching the news, one of the worst moments I've ever had. I can't believe the conflict is still going on." -Bonnie Campbell Bergenheier
"It was Jeremiah's 1st day of preschool at St. I's. He was crying and didn't want me to leave and the new teacher (who quit after that day) wanted me to stay. I was pregnant, bleeding and sick (and no one knew I was pregnant) and spent the morning crouched down leaning against a wall. My whole family was coming after school so we could go to Casey's to celebrate J's 1st day. They told me when the picked "us" up. I wasn't getting it. I was like - what do you mean the towers aren't there anymore. Rich's cousin was working in the towers, and my cousin was working across the street.Found out pretty quickly that my cousin was ok - got to work late so didn't get her latte in the towers that day. We spent lunch at Casey's calling around to see if Rich's cousin was ok trying not to scare the kids. It took hours, and his parents were frantic of course, but we finally found out that he made it out - luckily he ignored the announcement to go back to the office and kept running down the stairs. " - Regina Vitti Lyons
"Arne and I were living in St Louis, we were on our way to drop my car off for repairs, when I heard it on the car radio. We went ahead and took the car to the shop, then Arne drove me to work, where everyone was glued to the TVs and watching as the second tower fell. I sat in my little cubbie and worked on entering data into a computer all day, I just couldn't process the horrible tragedy yet. At the end of the day we drove to Arne's parents house and had dinner with them and talked and prayed." - Donna D. Schmidt
"It was Riley's first day of preschool. I didn't even turn the TV on that morning. We made a big breakfast and he was SO excited. I dropped him off and went to my friends house to cry about it and she opened the door she told me what was going on (in very dramatic fashion - "WE ARE AT WAR!" I walked in and looked at her TV right as they were showing the second plane hit." - Stephani Wallen Brown
"I was still working at the newspaper as an editor at the time. I actually wrote about my experience in my column that week. I re-posted it on my blog today, if you want to read it. (www.rootsandwings3.blogspot.com). Such an awful day. How easily I can go back to the emotions of that day." - Diann Devart
"I was driving over the hill to Walmart in Norwich, the first time I'd left my kids with a sitter since we'd moved to upstate NY, at first I thought it was just a terrible plane accident then the greeter at Walmart told me about the second plane and I turned right around and went home to be with my babies." - Kim Harding
"jim and i were headed to morgantown, talking about the trip to ca and back. we had just taken, bickering over whether we should have bought something we saw in new mexico. nothing had hit the radio yet. i called ella to see if she wanted to meet for lunch, and se told me what was happening. we got to her place in time to see the second plane hit and to hear about the 3rd. it's kind of laughable, really, the things we hold onto from childhood, 'cause all i could think of were memories of the nuns telling us to get under the desk in the event of a nuclear strike. then, i thought how spoiled and lucky we all were; so many people around the world experience terrifying and destructive events every day. then panic about the 3rd plane and moiya being in pgh with exhole kicked in and i don't remember much more after that. and i remember blurred days afterwards of pride in how well we were actually finally uniting as a people and waiting for the next one to hit." - Rose McTier
"We were woken up early by a neighbour roaring down the road on his Harley and I was griping to Mike about how I was so sick of him doing that and waking up the whole neighbourhood, I was going to call the cops and blah blah blah. We went down and turned on WGN news together since he was on vacation that week for his birthday and saw the 1st tower after the plane hit. I told Mike this wasn't an accident...this was a terrorist attack. We saw the 2nd plane hit. We were glued to the news all day, crying. The boys were only 3 and 2, so we tried to keep them in another room, watching shows of their own, but I know they knew something was wrong. Never did call the police on the neighbour...I realized that was an awfully small problem compared to what we, as a nation, were dealing with that day." - Paula Hiltunen Klatt Morris
"I was just turning into work when they said it on the radio. They were like 'we don't know if this is serious or not, might just be a bad accident'. Right then, the 2nd plane hit & the dj's must have been watching on tv because they started freaking out. I walked into work 2 minutes later & everyone was trying to get the internet to open up ANY news site. The only thing we could finally open was BBC. We had a couple tv's in the office & everyone was trying to crowd around them. The bosses told us to go back to work, but there was little work that got done. When I got home that afternoon, I spent hours just re-watching it all while I held my babies." - Vicki Wenndt Bonilla
"Because we live in Colorado, Warren's call with the news woke me up that morning. I got the kids up and drove over to my sister-in-law's to watch it on the TV there, and I remember thinking it felt like it was a movie, like descriptions of the War of the Worlds broadcast, only in reverse. It took me a day to realize all the people I knew in NY and PA that I wasn't in touch with at the time, that I might never know about. Warren was called to duty at DIA almost immediately, our first family experience with any kind of deployment as he had only joined the National Guard in February!" - Beth Coleman Baker
"On my way to the gym. My mom called on the cell and said "a plane flew into the Trade center twice." I didn't quite know how that was possible. But, when I got to the gym I saw it on the news. Geez." - Aimee Richards
"I was unemployed at the time, sitting in my office working on resumes and such, had the TV on and watched it all happen live...it was surreal. The first plane hit and I thought it was simply an accident, and then the second plane hit and I knew something was gravely wrong. I called the hubby at work right away -- it was so frightening. And then I sat on pins and needles waiting to hear about the flight in PA -- especially with family living there. My one girlfriend and I decided to spend the day together because we were so shook up. I will never ever forget watching it all unfold." - Dawn Steinmetz Broadway
"I watched it on the Today show. My mom came to watch Celaine while I went to work. I didn't know whether or not to go. I called Dean in Las Vegas (at a trade show) and woke him up with the news. He couldn't fly home and was stuck in Vegas. They never returned their rental car and drove it all the way home." Catherine Gandziarski Hornsby
"I had just arrived at work and my boss had his tv on in the other room. I heard him scream out some expletive , but I was working so didn't pay much attention. After the second plane hit, he sent me home because Britt was home from school sick and he didn't think she should be alone. What a devastating day, but in the days ahead we saw what a great nation we live in...everyone working together and the President handling it to keep us safe. The months after that were hard for me, too, with all of the news about the terrorists and how they work...the mujahedeen and the Taliban. Osama bin Laden and all the others. It was a very frightening time in our history and I was terrified that they would come here and harm us again. By God's grace they haven't done it again on our soil." Maryellen Connors Soell
"I had just dropped our oldest at kindergarten and came home and flipped on the tv as they were saying there had been an accident at the world trade center. I watched the second plane hit. My husband came home early so we could both pick up our daughter and explain what had happened. However, her teachers had already told her class!My hardest day came a year later. My husband was in Kenya during the first anniversary. I watched a show about the widows who now had babies and it hit me that our son was born right in the middle of them: March of 2002. I cried buckets and wanted my husband home." - Janice Burns-Watson
"Had gotten home the night before from Cancun with Karl. Went to work. Secretary at school came to my classroom with message from Karl, letting me know he was OK, but that was in basement of his building in DC and had no way home bc DC shut down the metro. Also for me to call one of our friends at work to let her know that her fiance - now hubby - was Ok. He was doing a CISCO class in NYC and had to get out across the bridge. He stopped at a WiFi cafe and sent Karl a message to tell Cherie. I finally got her and she cried and cried when she found out he was OK. Kids at school were stuck there bc many parents were military or important government workers on lock-down. One girl whose parents were Army guard at the White House, went home with a VP. One of Karl's coworkers drove him to the metro station to get his car after waiting in DC for hours. I still can't bring myself to watch the "specials" replaying the footage. Seeing the first time was so horrific." - Denise Snyder Radaker
"I was in Lowes heard the employees chattering amongst themselves...something caught my attention - I can't remember now what it was - I stopped and asked what was going on. They told me about the towers and the pentagon and also said the sears tower, thankfully that was not true. I was just like humpf! No one would be so stupid as to fly a fuckin' plane into the pentagon, and dismissed it as some web scam or something. But as I wandered around the store, the possibility of it and magnitude of what if it were true started to sink in. So I went out to the car and turned on the radio. I was stunned and overwhelmed. I was actually staying with my ex for a few days as it was my daughter's first week of school and I wanted to be there as much as I could. I left the parking lot still listening to the news over and over I completely missed the first two turns to take me back to his house, and it ended up taking me an extra 40 minutes! By the time I got there I had worked myself into a complete mess thinking if they could fly a plane into the pentagon they could have someone in very public building in America waiting for the signal to wreak havoc everywhere. When I got back to the house my ex wasn't there, I couldn't get him on the phone or any of our friends, I couldn't get his tv to work and it took what seemed forever to find a radio station that worked in the wooded valley where he lived. I was so terrified that there were terrorists in the schools and I couldn't get through on the phone, while the radio was saying that all the schools were in lockdown - noone coming in noone going out. I remember being feeling lost and utterly helpless and completely *terrified* and, oddly, finding the irony of being terrified by those called terrorists. The impact of that word has never left me. The following year on the anniversary I was so disturbed that everything was opened...people were just going on about their lives as though all was ok, as though one year we hadn't all been changed forever. There I was waiting tables, while the guests laughed and talked business and lamented their lives and all I could think about was all the people lost the people at work the firefighters and policemen. And now here I am 8 years later thinking the same thoughts while everyone continues life...worrying laughing ...
Read Morewondering working talking and I still wonder how on this day we manage to function as though it holds little significance or as though it were something better left to memory and unspoken. Thanks to all who wrote here." - Stephenie Redden Stevens
"Alexa had been born exactly 2 weeks before. I was nursing her when Jeff's brother called him to ask if it was possible for a plane to not miss the WTC and crash into it. So, we turned on the TV and watched in horror with tons of post-pregnancy hormones racing through me, wondering what the hell kind of world I had just brought this innocent baby girl into." - Amy J Vaccaro
"I walked to work that beautiful day. When I got there an older co-worker that always had a story told me that a plane had hit the WTC. I thought it was a little plane-just an accident. Then we started listening to the radio and it got so much worse. We had hardly any customers that morning and we all just sat there listening. Westwood has a commuter train that goes into NYC every day. Some of the people that took that train never came home. My town has a memorial to those 5 people now. I will never forget how in the following days every friend you met gave you a hug and asked if you and your family were okay. We asked each other that. It was all we could do. Several days later John was outside washing the car and I was nearby keeping him company. I remember standing there under the clear sky and for the first time in my life I didn't feel safe. So I asked John, "Are you scared?" Now John was a Navy corpsman. He's trained to crawl into combat and stick IV's into people. He's tough as nails. But when I asked him that day if he was afraid he said, "Yes. I am." I will never forget that."- Dorothy D'Amato Lagrimas
"I was driving into the office in downtown Clearwater when I heard about the first plane on the radio. Some of the folks in the outer ring of offices had radios so as news came in they were relaying it down the hall. Shortly after the 2nd plane hit the Big Boss came around and sent everyone home as there was a Social Security office in the building next door and they didn't know if government offices would be the next target. I also remember being sick w/ a cold/flu the rest of the week and pretty much watching the news non-stop. To some extent I think I stayed sick so long to give me time to internalize my feelings of fear and anger and not have to deal w/ them openly w/ an office full of people.Interesting as I hadn't really given that much thought until tonight. Thanks Kath!!" - Randy Clark
"I was living in northern NJ a few miles from NYC. I was on the phone with my wedding florist who let out a cry, "OMG...a plane just crashed into one of the twin towers...you have to turn on your TV." We watched in horror as the second plane crashed. Later that day, while driving for my final dress fitting, I watched the smoke pouring into the sky just a few miles away. I continue to pray for all the families whose lives were affected by tragedy on 9/11/2001." - Holly Arose Koch
"I was liiving NYC and walking to work. It was such a beautiful morning and I remember walking down 2nd avenue and firetruck after firetruck was racing past me. I couldn't image what was going on, until I got into the office and they announced that a "small plane" it the WTC. Eventually we watched the fall of the towers in a large conference room. I was on the phone with Angie who was supposed to come up for the weekend, and also my boyfriend who was telling me to get the hell out of work. They eventually evacuated our building because at the time no one really knew what was happening to the City. I went back to my apt, so nervous. The phones were out, cell towers were out and all that you could do was watch the events on TV. Out of nervousness I cleaned the entire apt. from floor to ceiling because I didn't know what to do with myself. Around 9pm that night my mom got through on the phone. As soon as I hear her crying because she had no idea where or how I was, it really hit me." - Tracey Freshwater
after those were written, i added my own:
"thank you so much, all of you. if it is ok, i'm going to combine all of these into one post to my blog this week. if you don't want to be included, just shoot me a message and i'll leave you off. no worries.as for me, i was running a day care out of my home at the time. louisa was not even a month old yet, sophia was 3, mia was 2. i also had 3 other kids there. i was busy feeing, changing and fussing about. did not even have the tv on. finally sat down at the computer to check email and there was one from lawrence telling me that he had just heard the news about ny. i had no clue what he was talking about, so i turned on the tv... from there, i could not turn away. i was frozen. the kids, somehow, were okay with me in a bizarre trance. i have never felt so afraid. i called lawrence and begged him to come home. he couldn't. then my brother, bill, called. he knew i'd be freaking. he was just leaving work. as soon as he heard my voice, he said he'd be over. then my sister called from texas. she was upset because the news there reported that a plane had crashed in pittsburgh and she could not get hold of our parents. they had been on a visit to ohio and were driving home. so i called my mom's cell, and she had just heard the news on the radio. they ended up at my house too. i also watched a couple school kids, and my niece and nephew came to my house after school...so by the afternoon, my house was full. i remember feeling so aware of how much i needed to be with those i loved. we also had a full day of worrying about friends and family who lived/worked in manhatten. and i remember all the posts online of people begging for information about friends/family who worked in the towers...again, thank you friends. if you are just coming across this and want to add your story, please feel free. i think this is good for us to remember that we really are all in this together. ♥ "
after that, my friend maryellen added this:
"Kath, I can picture everyone holed up in your old house, all warm and cozy, holding each other up in the tragedy. Your family is like that. Very wonderful to behold. There was a service at St. Thomas that night...Britt and I were acolytes and it was the most somber church service I ever attended. Definitely a day that stays in your memory. ...
Read MoreFear was my most obvious emotion that day and uncertainty for my child's future. After all, if they could come to NYC and create chaos, then they could go to any city. I lived in fear for months after that. It is when my insomnia began. And it makes me sad and angry that they made my child's life so different. She was 9 when it happened and she doesn't have much memory before that, only bits and pieces. But her life since then has been tainted by security and "Terrorist Threat Levels." They changed our lives that day in America and our children are more wary than they should need to be at their ages. Sad."
in spite of the fear and sadness, i still believe that God can redeem absolutely anything. even 9/11.
