Where Were You?

A Video That You'll Never Forget

Where were you nine years ago on that fateful day of September 11, 2001?  We all remember and will always remember, even if we want nothing more than to forget.  I was at work in the legal department of Circuit City's credit card bank.  Ironically neither Circuit City nor the bank are around today, but the memories of that day will forever be burned in my mind, in all of our minds.

My fiance (now husband) Bernie called me around 8:45 AM to tell me the first tower had been hit.  It didn't even enter our minds that an attack on the second tower was imminent.  The eerie pall that came over the bank was something unlike I've ever experienced, everyone's face was ashen and incredulous.  Beyond words, people numbly scattered to their offices and cubicles, trying to make sense of a national tragedy that made no sense.  By 10:30 or 11, everyone trickled home as if by instinct...  It was a day to gather with close friends and family and wonder if you knew anyone who was in the towers, the Pentagon, or on the doomed United Flight 93.  Everything and everyone stopped in horror.

My most poignant memory was something I witnessed while watching Good Morning America two days after the 9/11 attacks.  They were filming on location near Ground Zero, randomly interviewing passers-by.  All of a sudden a teenage girl burst on the screen, shaking with nervous energy.  "Has anyone seen my father?  Has anyone seen my father?"  she shrieked.  "He worked right here.  He's got to be here somewhere.  I just can't find him anywhere."  Then she started all over again, "Has anyone seen my father?"

It was heartbreaking, one of the saddest things I've ever seen.  There was something so raw, desperate, and intimate about it that I felt awful for having witnessed it.  Her all-out panic and crazed denial 48 hours after the tragedy made me think she had yet to sleep.  I still wonder about her and hope she somehow managed to beat the overwhelming odds and find her father alive and well.

Never forget because we can't forget.


LibbY