We don't live any where near Ground Zero in New York City.
We are about 1,000 miles away from the Twin Towers site, and it is so different here in little-town America.
But September 11, 2001, touched us, too, in a profound way.
The morning started out lazily for me. John went to work and I was hoping the boys would sleep in. Homeschooling is nice that way, you can sleep in some days. We had just gotten home from a big trip to Disney World two days before and I didn't want to get back into our routine yet.
As the boys slept, I kept the TV muted. I had on a headset that let me listen to the television. I'm a news junky, so I had the TV turned to NBC's morning program. I can't even think what it's called now. The show that Katie Couric used to be on. I was at the computer, on our slow dial-up, checking email, when I heard something odd on the headset. I rushed to the TV in our bedroom to watch the horror unfold.
The boys stayed asleep until after the second tower collapsed, around 9:30 our time. I remember very vividly thinking that I need to go give blood. There will be an urgent need for blood.
After the first tower collapsed, I knew the second would, also. I thought, I don't need to go give blood. They are all dead. Everyone of them. They're all dead.
It was so arresting, thinking that. I felt my heart would stop, it hurt so to think about what was going on.
Then the news unfolded over the day that yes, we were indeed under attack.
And the realization that I am married to a military man. And he'd be needed somewhere.
The boys got the day off of school. I was in no shape to teach. They were 5 and 9 years old. So innocent! And their world just changed. Did they even know it?
They would know it very soon. The next afternoon, Bryan and JT played in our woods with their swords--they were knights in King Arthur's court, slaying dragons. John and I watched them behaving like the little children they were. It was a gorgeous day. John told me that he had called his Army Reserve unit and asked to be put on the short list to go where needed. He gestured towards the boys, who were running through the trees, and said, "That's what we're fighting for."
Sunday following 9/11 I went to Radio Shack and bought my first cell phone. I knew that John would be called up and I wanted him to be able to reach me where ever he was, at any time.
The very next week, on Tuesday, September 18, John had a trip to Florida to work on something to do with Operation Enduring Freedom. Whatever he did there was secret to me. It was awful putting him on a plane that morning! I took the boys to the commissary (the grocery store on the military post). I was so upset, near tears the whole morning until John called and said he had landed. I was very short with the boys in the commissary. They were acting up and I was already at my breaking point. One of the retirees who was shopping there that day came up to me and patted me on the arm and said, "They're fine, Mama." Reassuring me, and letting me know that I needed to hold it together for my children.
Over the next eight years, John went on four separate missions as an engineer. Building targets, he said. Kuwait, DjiBouti, Qatar, Afghanistan. Finally getting to put all he learned into practice. We stayed home and prayed and managed. We were all so happy when John's last deployment ended two days before Christmas, 2009.
