24th Anniversary of 9/11

I don't know why the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks are hitting me a little harder this year, but they are. Today's crisp blue sky and low humidity take me back to that Tuesday in 2001. 

My birthday had just passed. 

I was working at Princeton Day School (PDS) in their Development Office. 

A year earlier we moved to our home in Lawrenceville. The house we knew was the start of the next stage of turning the house into a home. Transforming us from being a couple to becoming a family.

I was late. I planned to pop into CVS on the way home to pick up a pregnancy test I hoped, expected, would show we were indeed expecting.

The news came in about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. Surely it must be a small plane. Then the news that a plane hit the second tower.

My role at PDS was to maintain the database of everyone involved with the school: staff past and present, students, alumni, and parents. The call came from the Head of School to identify which parents worked in the WTC. Subtext: which parents might not come home that night. Who needs to be pulled out of class to be talked to separately.

About ten days earlier I had put together a book listing every student and every parent, their home and office phone numbers (few had cell phones in those days), their addresses, students birthdays, organized by last name and by class. It was always a huge undertaking. When people were taking time off to enjoy the last bit of freedom before another school year, I was sifting through data with a fine toothed comb. Eagle-eyed co-workers scoured the book for mistakes. The Friday before school started the book was delivered to the printer in Langhorne, PA (once by me to ensure it arrived on time). It was probably my most stressful annual assignment and the most rewarding.

I knew my data. I knew I could find the answer if the parents gave us the information.

I found ZERO parents who worked in the World Trade Center, but gave them the names of parents who identified their offices as being located across the street in the World Financial Center.

Sadly, we did have a parent perish that day. It was the parents of a new student. One who filled in the space asking for their work information simply as NYC. One parent who did not return home that night. One family that moved shortly after the towers fell. One family too many.

I have a couple of stronger memories. I remember calling my dad at work. Something I hadn't done since moving away from home. At the time he worked at Teterboro Airport with a view of NYC skyline (his office did not have a window, but the airport could see the sky). I asked him how he was doing and he said "it is so sad."

The next memory is from a couple of days later when I could smell the smoke. It traveled over fifty miles from NYC to Princeton. I thought if that's how bad it smells here, it must be intolerable in NYC.

It was years before I saw the news footage. I was standing in the Newseum, the museum of news in Washington, DC with Don and our daughter. It was even more horrific than I imagined at the time. In 2001 we didn't have a working television set. The internet was still new. Social media did not exist. I did not seek out images.

On September 12th I took that pregnancy test. It was positive. It was hard to celebrate knowing we were about to send a child into a world completely different from the one I had always known.

Pictures of a couple of pieces of WTC steel from our international travels:

Outside Gander, NL, Canada

Christ Church, NZ

Another reason it is hitting hard is because this summer we saw COME FROM AWAY in Gander, NL. The stories of people being stranded were brought back up to the surface.

Yet another reason is the resurgence of gun violence this week with the murder of a right wing 31-year old who once said a few deaths is the accepted price we pay to keep our "God given" right to the Second Amendment. The unity our nation felt on September 12, 2001 has been torn in half.

The calmest week we have felt since January 20, 2025 happened when the current President stayed out of the news for six days. It was just long enough for me to realize there is a chance we'll go back to being able to fully breathe again without worrying about what laws are being broken by the Commander in Chief. If not laws, societal standards. He thrives on chaos. I thrive on calm.