Recently, a reporter asks me to answer a few questions regarding the September 11, 2001 attack on our nation. Well I didn’t want to share my thoughts but I remember a very unsettling feeling of deep sadness as I reminisced about that day. I was teaching on in the Bronx and my principal was the first one to give me the news. She said keep the children in the room and don’t tell them anything. Parents are going to pick up their children and the others will be curious as to why their leaving early. Remain calm and wait for instructions.
My own child was in school. My parental nature kicked in and I wondered if my own child was safe. The parents stormed the school extremely upset as they picked up their children. We all had to go to the same area with the children to dismiss.
I remembered this one child that I knew very well was still at the school very late. I can still see the look on the child’s face when I left that night. My heart hurts when, I think about how this child was left motherless.
I called my brother as soon as I could get a connection afterwards. He worked in the City and his wife too. I was scared and crying thinking the worse. When I got him he was at home, but not his wife. She described that day by saying it was like something out of a movie. It was unbelievable people covered from head to toe bloody running across the Bridge. She said her mother got her right away on the cell phone and she told her I’m running across the bridge I’ve got to get home I want to see my kids.
When I left the Bronx the smoke was so thick I could see and smell it.
I remember thinking look at that smoke all the way from Manhattan to the Bronx and the smell was awful. I’ll never forget these events which I have described because 911 wasn’t like anything I’ve ever experienced it’s in a class by itself.
