Where I was...

10 years ago today, it was a Tuesday.  I was a new mom at home taking care of my first little boy who was one.  I had a niece who was born 12 days earlier with heart defects, and we were all helping her parents constantly go back and forth to the hospital to be by her side.

Jason was home sick from work that day and was the first one to catch the news.  He called me in and we were glued to the TV the rest of the day.

I will not try to put words to the horrors that I saw and felt.  There is no need; you felt them too.  It was SO much, for SO many.  I can only tell you that this national tragedy will forever be coupled in my mind with a tragedy for our family.  The very next morning on September 12, 2001 our little niece passed away.  She never had the chance to leave the hospital in her short life.  As we mourned with our country, we also mourned with her parents.  We saw the first planes allowed back in the skies as we stood in the cemetery at her service.

I wasn't able to see the Twin Towers while they were still standing, but I feel lucky to have visited the site of Ground Zero three times since that fateful day.  It was meticulously blocked off and full of construction, so there was never much to see.  But the somberness around that massive area was nearly tangible.  A picture simply does not capture the eerie quiet of all the people who passed by, or the way that the long, long lists of names brought a lump to your throat.

2005 - Just a huge pit behind me

2006 - lots of construction behind me, and a photo tribute on the fence

2009 - In front of Ladder Co. 10 - right across the street

A beautiful engraving on the side of that building

It's nice to be able to see the rebuilding and memorial (on TV) as it's nearer to completion now.  It helps to have a visual representation of the unity, compassion, and heroism that was brought out in every person during that time.  I heard somewhere once that that is why God allows terrible things to happen, even to good people.  Because the sorrow unlocks the love in our hearts.  Maybe the good can outshine the bad?  I don't know.  But I do know that the promise of a better day helps in our healing, slowly over time.  Not only for the people and places affected by those 4 airplanes, but even for one small family closer to home.