Watching the 9/11 coverage 10 years later and reading the social media coverage form many, many family and friends...what they were doing, how they felt then, how they feel now and finding myself incredibly moved by so many stories.
Some of most touching have been those delivered by the family members at the 9/11 memorial...incredible stories, well delivered of honor, courage and remembrance. I've also found myself compelled to return again and again to the Twitter stream of @JeffJarvis as he has been capturing his story in a moment by moment recurrence of his personal experience that morning as a commuter there on site when it all happened.
So, while I didn't plan to capture my story, I feel the desire to do so as a way of remembering those that I knew that were involved in this horrific day...
Strangely, looking back, I wasn't in my office at the time where my peers watch the entire event safely from the 16th floor of a New Brunswick, NJ office building where I normally would have been...instead, I was touring a dairy warehouse of the Albert Heijn food store chain in The Netherlands. I was there as part of an international business tour with a group of other students in the final stages of earning our MBA's from NJIT, a technical school located in Newark, NJ. This meant that many, if not all of those of us on that trip knew someone involved in the events as they unfolded and were reacting to them together in real time.
We were walking through the warehouse trying to understand our guide, who spoke with only broken english, when he paused to answer a call, I was next to him so I immediately watched his reaction, however I couldn't understand what he was saying...it was clear they he didn't understand what had happened either so he continued the tour...the then walkie talkie like cell phone rang again just a minute later...this time he seemed to fully understand the message on the other end of the line. I was acutely aware of his reaction, but didn't have any idea why he was abruptly ending our tour and escorting us to a small auditorium in the HQ of this food chain in The Netherlands. In that auditorium, the more than 50% American employees had already arranged for us to watch the LIVE coverage which was just before the 2nd plane hit. Amazing, that in that time, before Twitter and other real time tools that we found out so quickly. The AHOLD company, parent to Albert Heijn was incredibly supportive and immediately created phone banks for us to begin making calls to our loved ones...although we tried and tried, few of us were able to get through. I tried and to reach my wife over and over again who, unbeknownst to me, was in the hospital having just experienced a mis-carriarge earlier that morning. The hospital did the ultrasound, confirmed the loss and sent her home because of the then evolving tragedy and their need to prepare for the hundreds of casualties they expected as a regional trauma center within an hour of NYC. Sadly, they received none. The first person I was able to contact was my sister in Wildwood, NJ...about 3 hours away from NYC. she was watching the coverage just as everyone else was around the world and confirmed what I had already heard that bot towers had been hit by planes.
As students, we were supposed to fly out later that day to The Hague for more inspirational learnings. We quickly decided that flying to the European Union was probably not a good idea. We made alternated arrangements to take a bus thinking that we could always change course should something else unexpected happen in Europe. Many of the other students I was traveling had relatives, friends and co-workers that had died in the tragedy and were finding out throughout our next few days together. One gentlemen in particular was a senior member of the Jersey City Rescue Team and was obviously very concerned about the members of his team that rushed to the scene within moments of being called to duty. We arrived at the Hague, discovered that returning home wasn't an option for at least a few days and thus tried to focus on our planned agenda and to learn...that didn't go well at all.
We did return after a few days of being stranded there and reunited with our families, each of us learning about the demise of those we knew there in NYC that dreadful day, and began to pick up the pieces one day at a time. My wife and I made arrangements for a D&C procedure, our only immediate family loss that day and shared condolences with many of our friends and families that had experienced losses. My then boss had lost (4) immediate family members, 2 wall street types and 2 firemen...I guess that's just what happens when something like this happens so close to home...
Now, 10 years and 3 additional healthy children later, I find myself explaining over breakfast why Daddy has spent the first few hours of a glorious Sunday in front of the TV...to remember those that have made the ultimate sacrifice in support of the many things our nation stands for. While we have our challenges, we remain fortunate to live, learn, love and grow older in the single best nation in the world founded in times of despair and differences of opinion and continuing to excel in that same spirit...democracy, capitalism and the first belief that folks all around the world are well intended, good spirited people trying to take care of their families and live happy, prosperous lives with one another...well most of them.
Gotta run to break up a fight between the 3 year old, the 5 year old and the 10 year old...life goes on.
Best!
