We Shall Never Forget!

Good Morning!  On this day of remembrance, we all think back to that beautiful September morning in 2001 when everything changed.  I live about 15 miles from NYC now and can see the skyline from many of our streets.  In 2001, my husband (then boyfriend) and I were celebrating our 1st dating anniversary the days before and had gone to Florida for vacation.  We flew back to Newark Airport the evening before 9-11.  All of the flights into and out of the NYC area had been delayed due to thunderstorms.  We got onto the plane, but were unable to sit together.  I was between a young woman who hated to fly at the window and younger guy on the aisle who was also separated (on the plane) from his girlfriend. My husband was behind me. The girl squeezed the daylights out of my hand through take off and landing.  As we began our approach to Newark, the guy asked her to open the window shade.  I remember him saying that although he lived there, he enjoyed looking at the skyline when he flew.  She opened the shade just as we passed the Twin Towers.  It was nighttime, so we had the spectacular view of NYC and all the lights. 

We arrived home late and our 7 month old kittens were quite annoyed with us for being gone.  They played "kitty racetrack" over us in bed at 3AM to get back at us.  We were still on vacation from work for the remainder of the week, so we slept in on Tuesday.  Around 9:45, my uncle in Wisconsin called and told me to turn on the TV, saying "Two planes flew into the WTC and a bomb went off at the Pentagon."  I told him he was full of it and I was going back to bed.  He insisted that I turn on the TV and I was completely stunned.  I woke up my husband and he fumbled for his glasses to see what was on the screen.  We sat in stunned silence.  The rest of the day was many phone calls from my family as everyone knew we worked in NYC, but most didn't have an understanding of where.  Both my husband and I worked for Bayerische Landesbank, a German bank in Midtown, located next to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, just over 3.5 miles north of WTC.  One of the buildings at WTC was the Deutsche Bank building, which sustained substantial damage and of course, this caused much panic.  Most just knew we worked for a German bank, not the specifics. 

When we returned to work the following Monday, it was eerie.  Coming out of Penn Station, we immediately saw the flyers posted by families searching for lost loved ones.  My usual guide for knowing the direction downtown was gone -- the towers weren't there anymore.  We went down to Union Square park that evening and saw many memorials and more flyers.  It was heartwrenching reading them.  We walked further downtown, as far as they allowed you go to and saw truck after truck of firefighters, police, EMS, searchers coming from Ground Zero.  It was so strange -- it was so odd to be back to "normal" at work and then view this tragically new "normal."

In honor of today, we have a special freebie for you at Catch the Bug to mark the occasion.  Jodie drew this beautiful image -- I think it is just so lovely and perfect.  I wanted to keep this very simple, keeping the focus on that image and used the current Card Patterns sketch, which worked perfectly. I wrapped a bit of red twine around the base, adding a tiny heart charm to the bow.

Challenge Submissions
Card Patterns -- #132
Stamp Something -- Anything Goes

We Shall Never Forget
Stamps: Bugaboo Stamps 9-11 Special Release
Paper: Pure Poppy, Enchanted Evening, Vintage Cream, Bo Bunny Liberty
Other Stuff: twine, ribbon, charm, Nesties

Thanks so much for stopping by today!