Reflections

I know I'm about 4 days late for this post and I know I don't usually post about serious or thoughtful things here but I'm making an exception today. I've just been incredibly tired lately and last night I decided to just lay in bed from the moment I got home from work. Hot Rod laid with me and watched TV. He somehow managed to navigate to the History Channel and they were having the 9/11 shows on. I must of dozed off for awhile because I woke up around 9:00 and I was starving. I got up and got some cheese and crackers and brought them back to bed to share with him (and the dogs of course!) and after we finished and I put the paper plate back in the kitchen and turned off the kitchen light and crawled back next to my husband he just grabbed me and hugged me and he was crying. He said he just never realized how many people got to call their one and only and tell them "I'm not going to make it out but I wanted you to know I love you." I can't imagine the heart break all of those people went through. I can't imagine that city, the city I love so much, coming to a stand still for days upon days. But, it happened. 10 years ago...it happened.

I'm sure all of us remember where we were that day. I know I do. I was sitting at home actually that day. I was taking my motorcycle into the shop to get a last minute oil change on it before we headed off to the Ruidoso Motorcycle Rally the next day and I was sitting at home waiting for 9:00 to come when the shop opened. I turned on the TV and actually saw the second plane hitting the 2nd tower. I was in shock. At first I thought I must be watching a movie or something, but to my dismay it was no movie. I picked up the phone and called my husband who was at work. He was already watching. We just sat on the phone with each other in shock. Later we went to the motorcycle shop and it was a very somber day there. The TV's were all on and everyone was just glued to the set. No one could even express anything at all. It was too shocking, too sad, too disturbing.

We left the next day for the bike rally and instead of a joyous event that year, it was very somber instead. But, the one good thing that I will ALWAYS remember is just about every single motorcycle there (at least 20,000 bikes) were all displaying the American flag. Hot Rod had a huge flag on his bike and I had 2 smaller ones. I will never forget how proud I was to be an American those next few days and to show the world, you may hit us and you may knock us down but we will rebuild and we are stronger than you think.

I went back to New York in the spring of 2002, just a few months after 9/11. I was on a work trip to Philadelphia actually and we went to New York for an afternoon. I was the only one in our group that had been there before. I was the only one that had seen the towers before they were destroyed. I was the only one that could truly comprehend how massive they were and how the sky line of New York will be changed forever. The thing I remember most about that day was seeing this metal orb that used to be displayed in the courtyard at the World Trade Center. They found it in the wreckage and it was displayed in Battery Park.  I just stared at that mangled piece of metal because I had taken a picture of that very thing the first time I went to New York in 1996. I took another picture and then scrapbooked the 2 pictures together as a tribute to our great country. Here is that scrapbook page that I did so long ago. ..

I dug this out of a very old scrapbook and then scanned it. I just have to give a small disclaimer that my scrapbooking has come a long way since this was done! But, I'm glad I had these pictures. I'm glad I took the time to actually document this time in our nation's history. I hope someday my grandchildren and their children will inherit my scrapbooks and they'll look at this and they will remember what our nation went through. They will know that their grandmother was one of the people that stood on the sidewalk across the street from all that destruction and cried.

So, if you haven't already today grab the people that mean the most to you and tell them you love them because you just never know if it will be the last time you get to do it.