Everyday Canvas

The Trauma of 9/11/2001

On that fateful morning of 9/11/2001, I was at my computer, feeling happy because I had just become a moderator about a month ago, on 10/05/01, on Stories.com (WDC's first title). It felt as if nothing could go wrong.

Then, sometime after nine o'clock, my husband alerted me. "Look, something's happening in New York City." We had the TV on. Sue Herrera, on CNBC, said they didn't know what was happening but it seemed a plane hit one of the towers. So they had their cameras directed on the towers that were, I am guessing, behind the hosts.

After a while, the second plane hit the second tower. To this day, as I write this, I feel the same horror of watching this terrible thing live. I can easily say, I suffered from a post-trauma of some sort. I couldn’t go back to the twin towers area for at least ten years after that. When we went to NY last month, we still couldn’t go inside the memorial building and neither could we go where the large square hole with the cascades. We just sat in a little park and said our prayers.

Coming back to 9/11/2001, my older son was working close to that area, but since he commuted from Long Island, he would be in the city just a little before ten o'clock; however, at that time, I didn't think of him. I was too horrified to think of anything personal, until family and friends called to ask of him.

Immediately, our son thought of calling us from his cell phone, which worked throughout the day. He had no idea of what had happened, but he said he saw the fog and the police didn't let them in the area and told them to walk north. He learned what happened from us as we told him what we heard on the TV. At first, he said he walked to Columbia U., but there too, people didn’t know what had happened and most of them were in panic. Worse yet, our son had no way to return home. Then he went to a bar to watch it from the TV. He kept calling us periodically during that day, but he couldn't talk long because he was afraid the battery of his phone would run out. He said he was thinking of walking on the bridge to Queens, but we told him to go to Penn Station since we heard that LI. railroad had opened. This was around 4:30 in the afternoon. Finally he was able to go home. He, too, suffers emotionally as the result of that day. He is not the good worker he once was and can’t keep a job for long.

Three days later, after 9/11/2001, I put together an item, asking WdC members to write their feelings so we could cry on each other’s' shoulders.
Although some of the writers of that year have left the site by now, here is that item:
"A Monument from Feelings 9-11-2001"  [E]


A Few of the Novels and Movies Made on or about 9/11/01

1. DC 9/11: Time of Crisis –2003 movie
2. Fahrenheit 9/11—2004 movie
3. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close-2005- by Jonathan Safran Foer--novel
4. Flight 93--2006 movie
5. The Good Life –2006 --y Jay McInerney—novel
6. Falling Man by Don DeLillo. —2008--novel
7. The Hamburg Cell—2004 movie
8. The Path to 9/11 –2006 movie
9. Tiger Cruise—2004 movie
10. United 93—2006 movie
11. World Trade Center—2006 movie
12. Reign Over Me -- 2007 movie
13. Netherland -2009- by Joseph O'Neill—novel
14. In the Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman, —2004--novel

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Prompt: What were you doing and where were you on 9-11 when the twin towers were attacked?

Listers, don't forget your list.