September 11, 2005--Meg Cabot's account

No one will ever forget what happened that day, four years ago. Though, sometimes I find myself not wanting to think about it too deeply. Too scary, too painful...still too recent.

I was at home, getting ready for work, when my husband called and told me to turn on the television. A plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center Towers in New York. He was in his car on his way to downtown Chicago, his office just a couple blocks from the Sears Tower.

I remember thinking that the pilot must have had a heart attack and lost control of the plan or something for that to happen. Then, as I watched the television, and the shocked faces of the newscasters, a second plane hit the towers. And still, it took a second for me to realize that it wasn't a freakish accident. In fact, I think I said something about it to my husband who was still on the phone with me. And he laughed, a horrible, frustrated and scared sound that still sticks with me. "It's not an accident, Stacey. They're doing it deliberately." And then it finally clicked.

I tell you all of this not because it's that much different from what anyone else in the Chicago area experienced that day. In fact, it turned out to be a far luckier day for me than for many, just by sheer geography and the lack of family and friends in the NY area. But as we all know, others weren't so fortunate. Meg Cabot's account of what happened that day is extremely powerful and moving. She lived within eyesight of the towers. It's a beautiful piece of writing about one of the worst days in history.

She opens with the following sentence:
"I don’t know where you were today four years ago, but I can tell you where I was: in my Greenwich Village apartment, watching the office buildings across the street from where my husband worked fall down."

You can click on the quote to read the rest.