Tomorrow is a day I pause to think of 5 friends and acquaintances I lost on 9/11/2001, and give thanks that one family member was spared by nothing but pure luck.
I had a business meeting that day with a supplier who was in from the west coast. We met at my office in Peabody at 7:30 am and headed to a customer meeting in Natick, stopping for a coffee and quick bite on the way. On the way there I got a call from my Mom who was watching TV when it all started. Like everyone else I didn't think it was foul play until the second plane hit, which I heard reported on WBZ in the car. We got to Natick and of course the meeting didn't happen, we crowded around a PC and watched a stream of what was happening. I started wondering about my sister, who worked for the NFL in Manhattan and took the train from Jersey to the WTC stop every day. My mom called me again and said she tried to call and couldn't get through, the comms were overloaded. We beat feet back to Peabody and at the toll on the Mass Pike to get on 95 a trooper was just waving people through, no stopping to pay. I tried several times to call my sister and had no luck, just a rapid busy signal. We got to my office and I said screw work, called my wife at home and told her I was on my way. By that time it was 10:30ish and the towers were coming down, I was getting damn frantic. Got home and kept calling my sister, no luck. Talked to my brothers, we were all calling over and over. Tried her husband, and no luck there either. There was nothing to do but watch the horror on TV. They noted all air traffic was grounded, and I thought of my work buddy from out west and wondered how the hell he'd get home. Mid afternoon, we heard a huge jet engine roar and ran outside, and saw a small private plane overhead, it was being pursued by two fighter jets on full afterburners. They were so low I could clearly see the blue flames from the jet exhaust. We were freaking out wondering what the hell was going on. They were ordering the pilot to land the thing, we learned later. I went down to my Moms house and got her and brought her home with me. Finally late in the afternoon my sister called, and she was ok. She hadn't gone to work because she had a toothache that night and went to the dentist at 8:00 AM. What a stroke of luck. She went home and was able to watch the events from her balcony, saw it all. She and her husband had ended up running down the waterfront along with hundreds of others, helping people off the boat flotilla that was evacuating people. They were handing them water and washing out their eyes and giving them their phones to call their families and doing whatever they could.
I lost my HS coach and his wife, 2 people from my church who I saw every week, along a guy that was in my golf league and who I played with a month before. IT was a day I will never forget. And but for a toothache my sister would have been in that vicinity at that time.
Years back we had a thread about peoples memories, would be interesting to hear of others experience.
I had a business meeting that day with a supplier who was in from the west coast. We met at my office in Peabody at 7:30 am and headed to a customer meeting in Natick, stopping for a coffee and quick bite on the way. On the way there I got a call from my Mom who was watching TV when it all started. Like everyone else I didn't think it was foul play until the second plane hit, which I heard reported on WBZ in the car. We got to Natick and of course the meeting didn't happen, we crowded around a PC and watched a stream of what was happening. I started wondering about my sister, who worked for the NFL in Manhattan and took the train from Jersey to the WTC stop every day. My mom called me again and said she tried to call and couldn't get through, the comms were overloaded. We beat feet back to Peabody and at the toll on the Mass Pike to get on 95 a trooper was just waving people through, no stopping to pay. I tried several times to call my sister and had no luck, just a rapid busy signal. We got to my office and I said screw work, called my wife at home and told her I was on my way. By that time it was 10:30ish and the towers were coming down, I was getting damn frantic. Got home and kept calling my sister, no luck. Talked to my brothers, we were all calling over and over. Tried her husband, and no luck there either. There was nothing to do but watch the horror on TV. They noted all air traffic was grounded, and I thought of my work buddy from out west and wondered how the hell he'd get home. Mid afternoon, we heard a huge jet engine roar and ran outside, and saw a small private plane overhead, it was being pursued by two fighter jets on full afterburners. They were so low I could clearly see the blue flames from the jet exhaust. We were freaking out wondering what the hell was going on. They were ordering the pilot to land the thing, we learned later. I went down to my Moms house and got her and brought her home with me. Finally late in the afternoon my sister called, and she was ok. She hadn't gone to work because she had a toothache that night and went to the dentist at 8:00 AM. What a stroke of luck. She went home and was able to watch the events from her balcony, saw it all. She and her husband had ended up running down the waterfront along with hundreds of others, helping people off the boat flotilla that was evacuating people. They were handing them water and washing out their eyes and giving them their phones to call their families and doing whatever they could.
I lost my HS coach and his wife, 2 people from my church who I saw every week, along a guy that was in my golf league and who I played with a month before. IT was a day I will never forget. And but for a toothache my sister would have been in that vicinity at that time.
Years back we had a thread about peoples memories, would be interesting to hear of others experience.
