Nine years ago today, I was in my office at the Howard Haber Early Learning Center in the Bronx when we received reports that the twin towers were burning and Manhattan had been shut down.
I left to pick up my daughter, at school a mile away, and discovered police blocking on-ramps to the bridges. The children at my daughter's school were in church for Mass and the half hour I waited felt like a century.
With my daughter safe and with me, I returned to work, where efforts were being made to get all the children and staff home and safe. It was ordered panic and I was grateful all my work complying contact information on the children was able to assist in all the chaos of the day. I didn't sit down until we were down to our last 4 children. Then I saw the video of the planes hitting...It felt like I was physically struck.
I still feel that way when I see the footage.
I didn;t leave school till the last child was picked up at 5:30pm. By then the scale was started to set in. Mayor Rudy Giuliani said our losses would be more than we could bear...
My friends in Europe were calling as I arrived home, and I heard relief in their voices on hearing we were safe.
The school, the city, was closed down the next day. I spent it watching CNN. The news was bad and getting worse. So many good men that I had known...everyone knew someone.
It still seems like yesterday. I still miss them.
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