By JANET HART LEONARD
From the Hart
September 11, 2001
Of course I remember where I was.
Sitting there in my living room that morning, I was scared. We were attacked – not just our buildings, but our security.
As I watched, I was trying to wrap my mind around what was happening. The strongest nation in the world was being terrorized by evil and hate.
I’m writing on a Friday night, 20 years later, and tomorrow is the anniversary of that day. I’m glued to the TV, as the nation remembers.
There is still grief. As the stories are told, I feel the emotions of that day rise again. Tears fall in the same path as they fell 20 years ago.
So many final goodbyes. So many words left unspoken.
Diane Sawyer, the morning host of Good Morning America, gasps and says “Dear God” as the second plane hits the World Trade Center. I know it’s coming but it still startles me.
The news reporters were left speechless. Time stood still that day. The nation was in shock.
News correspondent Peter Jennings says he just called his kids. He reminds us to call our own kids, as he chokes back his emotions. I had already made those calls and one to my parents.
My heart remembers. My heart still feels the pain.
They show the now all-grown-up children of those killed. They were born just after 9/11.
I see the smiles of sons who resemble the smiles of their fathers. Fathers they never knew.
I see daughters who, at their weddings, will not be walked down the aisle by their fathers.
Mothers dropped off their babies at day care but they never returned to pick them up.
Voicemails were left on phones. Messages never erased.
Important papers, once stacked on desks, strewn through the rubble. The definition of importance changed that day.
First responders kept going back inside the Twin Towers. Eventually, there were no more trips to bring people out. The towers fell.
The face of grief is still with us. Echoes of screams and sirens and chaos still haunt us.
All our lives changed on 9/11. Our normal changed.
Fragility met strength 20 years ago. We would learn to be a better people because of that day.
Maybe we need to remember how we came together as a nation. Americans became kinder and more caring with each other.
Fear and hatred should never win. I pray we never again see our nation attacked like it was on 9/11.
May we be brave. May we be kind. May we remember. May we honor those who lost their lives that day by being a better people, coming together.
We learned that day that there is always hope … if we come together. I pray we again find hope.