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| From the September 11th Memorial at Sherwood Island. Taken by Todd this morning, Sept. 11, 2011. |
It was only his second day of retirement, and I had gathered everyone around the TV at around 7:30 a.m. to watch Jack Welch plug his book "Straight from the Gut" on The Today Show. After watching the softball interview with Matt Lauer, we all needed to get on with our plans.
Dad had been visiting for the weekend. We had only been in the Trumbull house for a couple of months and there were plenty of projects to tackle. On this late summer weekend, I remember the guys being particularly proud of themselves for having removed the "cat door" into the basement. I also know that dad spent countless hours on his knees that weekend, swapping out the Pergo in the dining room for a much-improved bamboo one.
Todd went off to the law offices in Bridgeport and dad jumped in his van for the long drive back to Erie. I, in turn, went to get ready for my day, too. I had a 10:30 meeting at Crotonville with a new Program Manager. We were to discuss the possibility of my joining the prestigious faculty there. For me, this was an important meeting.
By the time I got out of the shower, the news of the first plane was coming across the telly. I remember calling dad, who, by this time was almost to Newburgh. At the time, we still thought it was a little plane and had very little detail. A short chat on the phone, and we each went back to what we were doing. Minutes later, I called Todd at work. By this time, he was already watching TV in the boss' kitchen. Now it's just past 9 a.m. and I have an hour drive to Crotonville, so I got in the car and started to drive. I had an important meeting to get myself to, after all.
I'll never forget making my way through the backroads of Connecticut and Westchester County, listening to am 880. It seemed like every several minutes, there was more "Breaking News." While I was still in Trumbull: the second tower was hit. Some of it was news; some of it, unconfirmed reports of this or that happening. Now, New Canaan: the Pentagon's been hit. And I kept driving. After all, I had an important meeting to get to.
The front porch of the main education building at Crotonville has a sweeping vista of the Hudson River. On a clear day, you can get an amazing view of the Manhattan skyline. It's so stunning that I once worked with a FORTUNE magazine photographer to do a portrait of Jack Welch for one of their many cover stories during my time in corporate media relations. September 11, 2011 was, perhaps, one of the clearest days that I remember standing on that porch. For so many reasons.
By the time I was pulling into the driveway, the news of the second tower collapsing was just breaking. And surely, when I walked into the Education Building, I met with a silent crowd -- all fixed on that point on the horizon that was now just a massive cloud of smoke and dust. And it was massive. And the crowd was silent. All operations at Crotonville had ceased by the time I had arrived. My 10:30 meeting -- the most important thing on my agenda for the week -- was, of course, cancelled. The person I was meeting with had already left the campus. Her sister and brother-in-law both worked in the Towers. She needed to find them. In that very moment, I realized: My meeting wasn't so important, after all.
I remember sitting stunned in the White House (the name of the recreation building) on the GE campus for a couple of hours. I don't remember if we were in a lock-down, or if I, personally, was locked-down. I just remember not wanting to get in the car to leave. Instead, we sat in a TV room, watching events unfold into the early afternoon. Eventually, I made my way home. I thought about all of those commuters, taking a similar route, escaping the city dust-covered. But I had only watched from a safe distance, away from the dust and the smoke. I arrived home clean that afternoon.
We were to have flown to Rome on September 14 for a week of vacation followed by a week of my teaching in Florence. But airports were closed and my client decided it would be in everyone's best interest to cancel classes indefinitely. Now my schedule had, dare I say, a gaping hole.
I felt empty and helpless--but at the same time, full of energy to do something positive. For the next three weeks, I got myself up every morning, put on my work clothes and went to the Salvation Army in Bridgeport. They needed so much help organizing the countless donations that were coming in for the Ground Zero workers. And I had the skills and energy to do what they needed. There was so much to organize as donations flooded in from all directions. We were one of the major staging areas for supplies going in to the city. I never moved so many cases of water and --believe it or not-- bags of dog food. It was a massive undertaking.
Eventually, though slowly, things returned to "normal." Work started to come back. I remember being in Chicago teaching on the same day that President Bush told everyone to start flying again. "I'm doing my part!, " I remember thinking. But we never took that trip to Italy. For so many reasons...
TEN YEARS LATER
Today, we attended an impromptu ceremony at the 9-11 memorial in Westport
Ironically or coincidentally, it was a volunteer from GE's Veteran's Association who led a somber ceremony and read the names of all of the Connecticut victims who perished in the towers and on the airplanes. This was, perhaps the most important meeting I've ever had on September 11th.
We will never forget. 9 - 11 - 2001.
Here are pictures from Sherwood Island and then from the Freedom Riders bikers as they passed through Trumbull this afternoon.
