09/12/2026
Tuesday, September 11, 2001 ~~25 years ago~~ I will always remember 😭 The sky was so, so blue that day, the clouds were white and fluffy but sparse, the day was so clear... It was beautiful outside that morning!
I remember seeing the silhouette of the Twin Towers in the distance as I drove to work as I did every morning down Flatbush Avenue and the heavy heart I felt as they weren't there when I drove home that early evening ... Instead, I remember the black , dark, thick smoke that stood in it's place for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks on end. That thick black smoke became the silhouette I saw for a very long time! I remember the silence in the streets and the stillness in the air that day after the attacks and I remember seeing beautiful, small colored papers floating in the air for hours. It looked like glittering confetti flying overhead as the sun shined brightly on such a dark day. I remember picking them up off the ground of the campus at Brooklyn College and I saw a letter or 2 on each one and some had Chinese calligraphy on them and some had letters and numbers. I later found out they were the papers that were blown out of the towers and were flying above Brooklyn. John even saw them from his job in Coney Island! The silence was eery as you heard sirens blaring all day long... all the ambulances, fire trucks and police cars heading into the city all day long. That was the only sound that broke the silence. No one could really speak around me either... on campus at work all you heard were tears - the weeping, so much weeping! I remember the panic I felt as one of my close friends worked in that building - I don't know how many times I rang his phone but then I left him a message and just prayed... Oh I remember the relief I felt when I heard he was out sick that day. I remember the deep grief I felt when I heard his entire department didn't make it and they were also some of the many people who were my customers when I sold my chocolates when I had a small chocolate business. I was up on their floor where they all worked a few times and the thought that it was all gone - they were all gone just gripped me. Oh and the many people I knew who lost someone dear....all the lives that were lost - too many -- too too many. I remember the half staffed flags and black buntings hanging over fire stations and police stations everywhere and it continued for months and months and months. I remember lit candles flickering on our stoops and steps to our homes, including mine, as we prayed and kept vigil for missing people to return home or be found alive in the rubble! I remember the days and months following and the names of the missing or those who perished in the papers. I remember a radio station that was giving us the news that early afternoon and the silence that followed when the speaker asked to excuse himself on the air and he began to weep and the radio went silent. I remember having to stay at work to counsel and be there for the students but all I wanted to do was get home to my 2 year old. I remember. I remember a city that cried together, held each other together and worked together. We didnt care about anyones political affiliation, our nationality, our race, our gender ... we were all hurting human beings. We were broken human beings. I was never more proud to be a New Yorker and an American Citizen. All these reasons and more..... I will NEVER FORGET.💔
Thank you for listening.
Photo designed by the most talented Jason Zucker !! Thank you for permitting me to share!!
