For Those Who Didn’t Come Home…September 11 2001

 Has it really been 15 years since the day that changed the world?

I had just turned 47 in July, feeling vital and free, as I left my house that beautiful Tuesday morning, en route to work.

Needless to say, that job never happened, as I was stopped by a man who said, we were under attack and should collect our loved ones and get ready to leave.

Leave?

My loved ones, at the time, consisted of Missy the Cat who was certainly going wherever I was going.

Once what happened set it, I flew to Petco to buy a carrier as they were about to re-bolt the doors.

“NO NO,” I screamed…as a sweet, young man let me in.  That’s one of the things I remember so well about the day…how kind and helpful we all were to each other.

To paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt…

We Stood at Armageddon, and we battled for the Lord.

After a friend came to find me, explaining, yes we were attacked, but no…we didn’t have to leave our homes, we went to donate blood that, alas, by evening realized, would not be needed after all.

2,996 people died that day.

246 on the four planes.

2,606 in New York City.

125 at The Pentagon.

Imagine those waiting for loved ones who never came home.

I went to the World Trade Center site where The Freedom Tower now stands, like I do every year, to pay my respects, wishing they had left it the sacred burial ground it will always be.

I feel them.  The jumpers…those going in to help who never came out.

“You’re so maudlin Susannah,” a friend said, “can’t you just let it go?”

Let it go?

I will never let it go.

When I think of those people divinely chosen, to be sacrificial lambs losing their lives on that fateful mourn, I bray in humility.

3,051 children lost parents that day.

1,609 a spouse or partner.

343 were Firemen.

23 Policemen…along with one priest.

Let it go?

September 11th, 2001.

We bow our heads.        

SB