Honoring 9/11 becomes more important the older I get. I'm not sure why. I was no where near there when it happened. I don't know anyone directly impacted by the attack. But each year it seems to hit me harder.
(Please forgive me if this post causes anyone pain. That's not my intention at all. It just breaks my heart when I think of what the men and women who were impacted by this attack had to go through that day, and the months, and years following. I'm sharing this out of deepest respect.)
I spent most of Wednesday morning going over in my head what I wanted to write on here. I thought about the pictures I wanted to include, the stories I would tell. Then after work I picked Ally up from school and took her home, I stopped at Target to buy Beth an ottoman, came home, fixed dinner, showered, Chuck came home, and by the time I sat down here to write, all I could think of was "What have we been up to?" Completely forgot what day it was. When I went to bed that night I couldn't believe I didn't write about it.
The first time we went to New York was in 2004 and we stopped at Ground Zero. They had cleared most of the site and were now starting to rebuild.
These beams were found like this in the rubble. It became a source of hope for all the men and women working at Ground Zero. It's now in the 9/11 Museum in New York.
This firehouse was across the street from the Twin Towers and was demolished when they fell. They lost five men that day. Last week we watched a documentary that included some of those men.
This was shown on a documentary I saw a few years ago. You can see the firehouse on the left. (Sorry it's such poor quality. It's a screen shot from the TV.)
Twenty years after 9/11 we were in New York again and stopped at the beautiful memorial fountains that are now in the exact places where the towers once stood.
Plus thanks to our girls, Chuck and I got to see a play about 9/11, on Broadway in New York, the week of the twentieth anniversary. It's one of our favorite productions of of all time. We watch it again every year. (You can find it on Apple TV.)
We've had the honor of visiting the museum, a place we'd love to see again. There just wasn't enough time to see everything that day.
.jpg)
I took Ally home from school on Wednesday and I asked her if they did anything for 9/11. She asked, "What's 9/11?" When I told her then she remembered, but no, nothing was mentioned at school. What are we doing to make sure it doesn't happen again? I hope we truly never forget.
4 comments:
Hi Cindy~ What a beautiful and heartfelt post. It brought tears to my eyes as I read it and remembered the feeling of sadness, dread and fear that horrible day. How fortunate you are to have been there twice, what an honor. I'm not sure that any of my grands where taught about 9/11, it should be a day filled with reverence. Thank you so much for posting about 9/11. . . I pray that we will never forget. Hugs, Barb
Thank you for this heartfelt post and the pictures from what you saw in person in NY. We've never been up there to see any of this. My husband's first cousin died when the towers fell. He worked in one of the twin towers, but I don't know which one for sure. My husband had not seen his cousin since they were children since they lived in different parts of the country, but we knew his dad (my husband's uncle), and sadly he died of a broken heart not very long after 9/11. The cousin left behind a wife and some young adult children. It is a day that we will never forget. Life in our country and world have never been the same since that day. And yes, kids should be taught about this in school, but sadly schools aren't teaching true history anymore, so most likely the next generation won't know anything about this horrific tragedy. Thank you for doing your part to share the story. God bless you and your family.
Thank you Cindy. When I was homeschooling my children we took 9/11 off from school. It's sad that Ally's school didn't do anything for that day. I want to thank you for not showing the burning towers. People seem to forget that those pictures represent people are burning in those towers.ðŸ˜
Well done, Cindy. Your pictures are so meaningful, even 23 years after that tragic event. It is sad that it isn't being taught about in schools today. I looked up the play and it is also on YouTube. I will watch it this weekend.
Post a Comment