September 11th

We’d just returned from a holiday with friends who live in NYC. We’d decided to go up the Empire State Building and save the Twin Towers for our next visit, never dreaming for a moment that the TT would not exist on our following trip.

Thinking of all those who died or live with the effects to this very day.

We were at work and the tv was on in the canteen; people were just going back but we all stopped in disbelief at the horror that was unfolding on the small screen.
Remembering all those who died.

I'm writing this on 12 September as on the 11th I saw no commemorative programs and frankly forgot on the day. I do remember where I was when the dreadful news story broke and I do think of the victims and their families often.

I remember that day like it was yesterday. I'd booked and paid for a holiday for us all to Kos that morning. I was trying to find the exchange rates on teletext but couldn't understand why all the channels were playing the same film Towering Inferno. Listened to one channel and realised what was happening. Told my son and his friend who was staying with us, but they insisted it was just a film
The friend called my son to watch it and we sat there in silence. Saw my sister at the school when collecting my daughter from swimming. Sister didn't believe me, but the teacher asked me if it was true what she'd heard on the swimming coach radio.
We flew to Kos 3 weeks later, stewards on the plane were silent, no alcohol served and you could hear a pin drop. When we returned my 7yr old daughter was questioned at check in about our names, who we were, where we lived ie mummy daddy granny. We are all white UK but they questioned us anyway. Must admit I was v scared on the plane both ways.

My cousin worked in the twin towers, it was 3 days before we heard from him that he was safe. He ran for about two miles to get away from the dust and debris, he’s never been the same since.

I was working in a local mental health hospital when the news broke. We all shot into the residents lounge and saw the horrific scene unfolding on the television. One of the psychiatrists came in and actually said, "Oh good. They deserve it". I will leave you to work out what nationality he was. We all thought that he was quite nice prior to that. Not afterwards.

i was printing C.Vs for my sister when she called me to come and watch, we both stood open mouthed at was happening in front of us, totally unbelievable that something so awful was happening right in front of us. So, so sad

Was working at Voluntary job in BHF & my son’s friend rang to tell me. Everything stopped in the shop as customers & staff tried to make sense of what was happening! Terrible time! RIP all those whose lives were lost!

I was at Bath University, in my first (& only!) term of teacher training after getting my OU degree. We were in the library learning the system there & someone said something momentous was happening. We were all horrified. I had friends living in Manhattan at the time (happily they were OK). I drove home in tears.
We visited New York some months after & saw Ground Zero before the memorial was built. Very emotional to read the stories in the NYPD museum.

The caretaker at the school where I worked popped into my classroom that day. He knew my children and I had visited NY and gone to the top of one of the towers. He said he had heard that a small plane had hit one of the towers.

I was worried because my nephew worked for Morgan Stanley at that time, and was based in one of the towers. When I got home from work I saw the full horror on tv, but happily it was Jason's day off that day.

We felt that we were a very lucky family.

And the responding services who bravely tried to save who they could. Police, firefighters, paramedics and others. There should be a memorial to them.

JacquiG

And the responding services who bravely tried to save who they could. Police, firefighters, paramedics and others. There should be a memorial to them.

Definitely they were running up the Towers and towards danger…

We were on holiday in St Ives, Cornwall, the year following my retirement. We had been out all day and were making our way back to our holiday cottage, when we heard the news, via a car’s radio. So very shocking! We were just glued to the news all that night.

I was in the staff room at school. Someone came in and put the TV on. I don’t know how they had heard, but obviously we all watched it until the next lesson.
My husband told me how his class filed in, watched it with him then filed out in silence, to be replaced by the next class, as the horror continued. I don’t suppose many teachers let their classes watch it, but as DH taught Religion and Philosophy, it was appropriate.

GrannyGravy13

JacquiG

And the responding services who bravely tried to save who they could. Police, firefighters, paramedics and others. There should be a memorial to them.

Definitely they were running up the Towers and towards danger…

It was a dreadful day.

The rescue service members who lost their lives that day as well as people in the buildings are named on the walls around the Ground Zero waterfall. It was a sobering place to visit this Summer.

I was in work and like Cabbie21, saw it in the staff room.
We had friends on holiday over there and they were full of praise for those who tried to help.

I had spent the early afternoon in a garage buying new tyres for my car. I went from there to pick my children up from school and heard the news from one of the other mums outside the school. I think at that point they still thought it was an accident as only the first plane had hit, but the full horror unfolded when we got home and saw the news. So so sad! The only people we knew in the US live in Alabama, but it must have been terrible for those with family or friends caught up in it. I have a friend whose birthday is that day so I guess she never forgets.

I was working at a Theological college in Oxford. The maintenance guy popped his head round my office door and said that America was being attacked. In the student common room, students and staff were glued to the television. It was horrifying. OH was in Kiev in business, daughter was visiting her boyfriend in Australia, younger son was at school in 6th form and elder son was at his part time job prior to joining the Royal Marines. It wasn’t too long before he was out in Iraq….

lixy

GrannyGravy13

JacquiG

And the responding services who bravely tried to save who they could. Police, firefighters, paramedics and others. There should be a memorial to them.

Definitely they were running up the Towers and towards danger…

It was a dreadful day.

The rescue service members who lost their lives that day as well as people in the buildings are named on the walls around the Ground Zero waterfall. It was a sobering place to visit this Summer.

lixy we have visited the memorial and museum.

We both found it so moving and extremely peaceful and respectful to those who died and survived.

I couldn’t listen to the recordings of the phone calls, DH did and was very moved

We had just finished a long cycle ride around two Peak District reservoirs and stopped for coffee at the kiosk in the car park which had a tv playing what everyone thought was a disaster movie until we realised it wasn’t. The shock was palpable. We drove home and turned on the tv and sat there in tears. All those poor people and the dreadful ordeal of the emergency services. What a devastating start to the new Millenium. DD visited the memorial site when they went to New York she said it was intensely moving.