We Still Remember

I'm reluctant to post about 9/11 despite the ten year anniversary. It isn't that I feel such a distance from that day that I have nothing to say. It is that I wonder what is so important about what I have to say regarding that day. I'm glad it is on a Sunday this year when people will not have to be at work but can do what they wish with the day. Spend it however they need to and not be tied to as much responsibility.

All this week I step out my front door and realize each day has a brilliant blue sky. Cloud free and calm. I am reminded of September 11. I don't need any commemorative coin or magazine in my mailbox. I just have to look at the sky. That sky will forever remain in my memory.

We had gotten married just days before and arrived home late the night of the tenth. We threw our wedding gear on the floor and fell into bed. The next morning was H's first day in his new office at 29 Palms Marine base in California. I was awakened by the phone. Who wasn't on that day? My parents were still in Vegas, our wedding location, and now stranded. There was no getting out and returning to Rhode Island now. The first Tower was already down. My mind went into overdrive as I thought of all the people we had as guests at our wedding that weekend, friends who couldn't make it, all from New York. Some working right there. I fell on the floor as I watched the scene unfold before me on television. What had become of our dear friends?

I spent the day driving through the desert on my way to pick up family in Vegas. I drove without any radio station or cell signal. Every few miles strains of the national anthem would come across the radio. I felt like I was the last person left on the planet. Chaos and confusion reigned in Vegas as people were stuck in hotels with no way to get home. I dumped my car's full ashtray on a tourist who made fun of people falling to their deaths from the Towers. It was the least I could do.

When I arrived home that night, weary and my Corolla packed with family, H was still not home. I hadn't been able to get through to him on base all day. I left him a note on the kitchen counter, "Went to Vegas to pick up my parents. This is insane. Be back soon." We still have the note. Later that night, when H did come home, my parents watched my new spouse gather his military gear up and begin packing it because that is what he was told to do. I looked down at my sparkling new wedding band and thought, "I knew this could happen. I just didn't expect it so soon."

I had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact the just a few days before we were surrounded by friends and family, spending cash like mad, drinking it up, acting so incredibly carefree, gambling and dancing to our hearts content. It was a different reality we were now all facing. A total 180. I cried for days and searched the lists of names for people we knew.

Ten years later, it is all so very fresh in my mind. I still mourn. I still replay the day's events in my mind and feel bits of grief. Do you?

Let's Achieve Something Great Today. Lives Depend On It.

Here's the thing about me.  I'm am not a nurturer.  In fact, my family calls me "Nurse Ratchett".  When my husband is hurt he asks for my help only out of desperation.  I don't like pain and suffering. I'm more of the 'suck it up' 'your legs aren't broken' type of person.  I think I've actually told my kids that. OK. I confess. I have told my kids that. 

Yet, I'm oddly empathetic to total strangers and those in need.  I still get choked up about the Titantic, people.  When I read a blog post, "It's Getting Real Bad" from Virginia, a Pittsburgh blogger, I got choked up.  Then motivated.  She has friends Jamie and Ali McMutrie in Haiti who run an orphanage there.  If you didn't read the link I just posted here's the brief version.  The kids are almost US citizens.  They are inches away from being adopted by US families, yet with all that is going on there right now they are stuck.  Living in a yard with contaminated water and no food.  They are sleeping on the ground and things are going to get even worse real fast.  Riots. Starvation.  And worse.  While Jamie and Ali can get out via the US Embassy they would have to literally abandon these children.  Imagine that.  Just leaving a yard of children to fend for themselves in that mess that you are watching flit across your television screen.  It makes me cry each time I think of it.  Then get mad, then motivated even more. 

Jamie and Ali will not leave these children.  They need two things- a private plane to take them back to the US with the kids and then something much harder to obtain.  They need the "government here, in the US, to grant the children some sort of temporary refugee status so that they can come home and be with the families that are waiting for them. we are in no way experts here. we have no idea how to go about making it happen. what we need are connections, string pulling at the highest levels of government. this is a tall order."

But we are Americans right?  We like tall orders. No, we LOVE tall orders. We like to do BIG things.  We like moving mountains and doing the impossible and being saviors to others. We get off on that stuff daily.  It is what we are known for and what we are about.  So what can we do, people?  Can you call your local news station and newspaper and tell this story?  Can you call your congressman or woman and beg them to get their butts in gear and get themselves some good PR in the process?  Can you just do something today like pass this on to others who might know someone and get the word out even more? 

Don't just look at your television screen and think what can I do?  Make an impact.  Make a call.  Write an email. Save a life.  Really.