That day we will never forget

It's been 9 years and it still hurts. I was getting ready for work at PeopleSoft and usually have the TV on in the bedroom as I get ready. We were all home - it was still very early in CA. As soon as I turned it on they news guys was reporting the shocking news of the accident in New York - a passenger plane had hit a WTC tower - unbelievable! Then quickly and as I was watching a second plane struck the other tower - what? The talk had turned to hijackings and an attack on our nation. A third plane was still out there under the power of more hijackers. I called my boss Neil on the phone - Neil is from NY, born and raised. His daughter is a nurse in Manhattan, son-in-law a firefighter (at least I think that's right). He was curious why I had called him at home before work - so early. My voice was already breaking up as I tried to ask if he had seen the news. He hadn't. We've been attacked, I screeched! Planes...crashed in the WTC, I croaked. What, he asked? I'm sure he thought I was mad or he hadn't heard me correctly. I then told him all I knew and he turned on his TV. My own family gathered together and my husband - from New Jersey - and I tried to explain what we knew to the kids. We agonized about what to do next - do we send them to school? Do we go to work? It's hard to recall the details but I think they stayed home with him and I know I had to go to the office. We had to gather an executive team and they included me to represent Telecommunications. We had to locate all our employees - we had many "road warriors" and some were surely in NY at this time, some in Boston, many on air travel. It was an intense day, a day where we all worked together regardless of position or title. We learned of the heroes of Flight 93 who forced the plane down in a field and gave their own lives to save thousands of others and to not let the terrorists succeed in their mission - not on their watch. How courageous is that (tears still stream when I think of this). We did not loose any employees but a young lady who worked for me lost her dear uncle at the Pentagon - it touched home.
I will never forget this attack on our freedom and I will never understand the hatred that lives within the likes of those that want us gone. They truly do want us gone - imagine that.

This week there was a terrible fire and destruction in the Bay Area as San Bruno exploded with a tragic gas line break. A friend of my son - a lovely girl who visited him in the hospital recently, a girl whose god mother was his nurse several of the days, is missing her family. She is in her early 20's and has an apartment in Sunnyvale - her mother was at work in Sunnyvale when the explosion occurred but her father brother and grandmother were likely at home on Claremont in San Bruno. They have not been found - there has been no word. I pray for this family today and I am reminded that life is precious. We are very blessed and we should not wait for tomorrow to tell our loved ones how much they mean to us. God Bless.