Just My Opinion by Mary Kilen
Where Were You?
Working on the 9-11 remembrance story this week was difficult for me. When writing about remembering where you were and what you were doing, I found myself completely remembering that morning. It’s weird, because half the time I can’t remember what I am going to do when I get back to my desk. That morning, though, is burned into my memory.
I was driving Amanda to school and had just dropped her off on my way to visit my friend Sherry before heading to work. This was our usual morning practice. Normally, I would walk in, and we would watch television together before I had to be at work.
That morning, as I was driving to Sherry’s the radio station was talking about the first plane having crashed into the World Trade Center. I remember thinking, that’s a horrible accident. I walked in the door and told her we needed to change the channel. We did that just in time to watch the second plane crash into the towers. At first, I thought it was a replay, but instead we were watching the horror of that morning unfold before our eyes. As we were still processing that information, another plane crashed into the Pentagon. Shortly after I got to work, the news of the plane crash in a Pennsylvania field was spreading.
I spent the rest of the day listening to and watching news reports unable to believe that such an attack had occurred on American soil. By afternoon, I also knew that Stanley’s Ann Nicole Nelson had been in the World Trade Center just a few floors above where the first plane hit.
We also knew that our family came very close to be impacted like those other families. Our niece had been petitioning to be transferred to the New York office of the company she worked for and would have been in the towers that day if she had been successful. My brother-in-law had been considering a job at the Pentagon.
Fifteen years ago, when I was working on a story again remembering 9-11, I remember talking to Ann’s father, Gary. It was difficult asking him to remember that day and everything their family went through. The one thing that struck me the most was his asking me not to call it the anniversary. He said that an anniversary should denote celebration and that was his one request as he and I talked about not only the events of 9-11-2001, but those that came after.
Gary and Jenette were often very involved in various events on the anniversary of that day. Jenette would often participate in events in North Dakota, while Gary would almost always be in New York City and sometimes at Wayland.
It’s hard to remember that day, but then I realize how many of our young people either were not yet born or too small to remember that day. We owe it to them and to the many who died that day to keep the story alive. We also owe it to them to remember not only that day, but the years of wars to follow. We can never forget how our world changed that September morning in 2001.
A few weeks ago, my friend Pam Nelson came into the office. She said she was thinking about me as I got close to the time to write about September 11 again. It is ironic since she is Ann’s cousin that she was thinking about my reaction at this time.
She pressed something into my hand and when I looked, I’ll admit I teared up. It was a gold coin. On one side, it says “The American Spirit. Remembering 9/11”. It has a picture of an eagle, the towers and an American flag. The other side has the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline including the towers. It has a quote from then mayor Rudolph Guiliani. It reads, “The attacks of September 11th were intended to break our spirit…We are more determined than ever to live our live in freedom.”
Not Funny Mother Nature
With the long holiday weekend ahead of us, Dale and I were debating what we should do. We had decided that we would take the trike out, but we were debating what day. After watching weather forecasts, we thought maybe Saturday would be the right choice.
I got up Saturday morning to cool, cloudy skies and wind. We had hopes that it would clear early enough in the day to give us that chance to get out. Unfortunately, it took a lot longer to get nice, so we decided instead to get some burgers and grill in the back yard.
The rest of the weekend seemed to play out the same. My phone kept telling me that rain would “start shortly” and that “some severe thunderstorms” were possible. That left us playing a waiting game for things that didn’t happen. Instead, we found ways to keep ourselves busy either around the house or at the office.
I didn’t get my motorcycle ride, something that we try to do most years over the Labor Day weekend. I even finished up early at the office on Monday with some hope, but it just didn’t happen.
Instead, we spent some time building Legos. That’s not a horrible way to spend the afternoon, it just wasn’t what we had intended.