I Remember Where I Was, On 9/11 by Tammy Todd
Category: Life
It's hard to believe that it has been five years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Are we wiser and safer or just jaded? It's 2006 and we haven't found Osama Bin Laden and are not fully prepared for another attack.
I remember, being a brand new, "New Yorker" and seeing the twin towers for the first time. They were breathtaking. I had never seen anything on that scale before and was elated that I would have a chance to work there, for a few short weeks. I would arrive hours before I was due at work, just to wander the grand buildings and peer through it's windows. "Windows to the world." I thought.
A few months later, I would be on the phone to a Human Resource Director for a company at the World Trade Center at 8:40am on September 11th. I was excited at the prospect of a new job at the Center but I was uncharacteristically fatigued and lethargic. I did not feel up to taking the train ride to the towers and then sitting through a lengthy interview. It seemed like the onset of the flu.
Before, we could reschedule the interview, the first plane hit the World Trade Center. The television was on in my living room and I could see the local station's, " breaking news" banner. Apparently, a wayward plane, accidentally careened into the World Trade Center. We wouldn't realize that the United States was under a terrorist attack until the second plane hit the second tower.
I never met her and I don't remember her name but I remember the fear and urgency in her voice. "Please stay on the line with me", she said. "I'm at another location, but I have over 500 employees in that building!" her voice was beginning to shake. "Just stay, I'll put you on hold in-between my other phone calls to the Managers in the building."
I reassured her that I would not hang up. I clicked the channel over to CNN and gave her updated information as the broadcaster announced the unfolding story. Dozens of times, she would put me on hold and then return a few minutes later panicked for new information. This would last until both of the towers fell. We both cried and said our good-byes.
I prayed that she would find some of those 500 employees and was happy to find out through another Executive, a few days later, that all 500 people had made it out safely. Those that could not accept transfers to the company's other divisions, some offers as far as three states away, would lose their jobs.
I never spoke to her after that morning, but I can still remember the tone and timber of her voice, five years later. Every 9/11 I remember the heros and the victims horror and her plea, "Please, stay on the line, with me." To this day, it is almost impossible, to get me to hang up first.
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Thursday, August 31, 2006
