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Cheers
Give a Cheer
Give a Cheer
This was the most difficult layout for me to complete. I did it last year. Even so, every time I look at it, I get choked up. the journaling reads: "Oh say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave...
over the land of the free and the home of the brave...."
~Frances Scott Key, 1814, Star Spangled Banner
On September 11, 2001, at 8:46 A.M., I was teaching my second period English class at Highlands Middle
School when American Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower at the World Trade Center in New York City.
A student from Tim Kaczmarek’s class ran into my room and told me to turn my television on to channel 11. The
first thing I saw was thick black smoke pouring from a building. We listened and heard that a plane crashed into one
of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. I thought it was a freak accident. Then, as we watched, another
plane crashed! Nausea stung the back of my throat, and I feared what the crashes meant.
We kept the television on through third period. My students sat in stunned silence. Soon my fears were beginning
to be confirmed; President Bush announced at 9:31 A.M. that we were the victims of a terrorist act. At some time
after 9:45 A.M. we saw that the Pentagon had also been attacked.
I wanted desperately to call Jill Cassidy’s house to check on Jacob and Ian. Common sense told me that they were
safe, but I needed to hear it. I needed to hold them. I had to talk to JC. Waiting for the period to end so that I
could get to a phone was difficult. Once the opportunity came, it took several attempts to get through to Shaler
Intermediate school. The phone was constantly busy. (I learned later that parents, concerned about their children,
were flooding the school with calls.) My call to Jill reassured me that the boys were okay also.
During lunch duty, Jean, our school security guard, came into the cafeteria and told us that a plane crashed in
Pennsylvania. More than anything else that had occurred, this terrified me beyond words. The attacks were not
ending, and now, my home state was involved. I worried that more areas would be attacked, and most prevalent on my
mind was the safety of my family.
For weeks following the attacks I did little more than watch the television, search the Internet, and read the paper,
absorbing everything I could about the attacks and the aftermath. Images of victims and their grieving families
haunted me. The voices from victims’ cell phone messages, saying their last good-bye, gnawed away at me so much
that I could not sleep. The other thing I did a whole lot of those weeks was cry.
I cried for the victims. I cried for their families. I cried for my children. Life as I have known it, was over. Never again
will my boys enjoy the safety that I have throughout my life. The terror has only begun. I ache inside every time I
think about when the next attack will come and how it will affect my family. I worry for my childrens’ future. Right now, I
can only hold them tight, love them, and pray for them.
As I write this, it is July of 2002, and I am only now finding the courage within myself to scrapbook this horrific event.
Still, I cry. Even so, I want my children to one day know how I felt that fateful day and the weeks that followed.
I will never forget September 11, 2001.
No products have been added to this project.
Thanks for spreading positivity!
January 19, 2005
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January 14, 2004
December 01, 2003
December 01, 2003