I should have known right away that something was seriously wrong. But that was then, before everything changed.
I told the cabbie that I’d walk the rest of the way to work. I knew where I was in relation to the office I was visiting, it was a beautiful day and traffic was at a dead stop. As I walked towards the building at Hudson & Canal in Midtown NY, I noticed there were people stopped along the sidewalk. At 9 am on a Tuesday, there was no reason for any New Yorker to be standing still. When I realized they were all looking up, I finally followed their gaze and was amazed at what I saw. “Hmm” I thought. “You don’t see that every day.”
Surely my husband Rick, a construction project manager, would be interested in what I was seeing. “I think this might make the evening news” I told him, as I called him on my cell phone, continuing on my walk to the office. I told him that I could see a large building with a hole in it in one of the upper stories. As I couldn’t provide any details regarding the location of the building, he turned on the news to see if there was a mention. Immediately, he started yelling at me “That is the World Trade Center!” um, ok. “You can see it?” yep, that’s why I called you. “How close is it?” no idea. Not known for my sense of direction. “Get out of there! Do what you need to do and get away!” Sure thing honey.
While Rick was hollering at me, we both watched the second plane hit. I watched it live while he saw it on TV. We were both screaming, as were people around me on the streets. While Rick had the advantage of the news commentary and the media analysis as to what was happening, I only had my eyes to rely on. What I was seeing was surreal, but all around me, people were continuing on to work. That said, I said good bye to my husband, put my phone in my pocket, crossed the street and entered the office.
When I reached the 7th floor, I found a gathering of my coworkers. They were glued to the window, watching the aftermath of the two planes in real time. The radio was on, the announcer telling us that a third plane was headed for NYC. Some people were sobbing, some were comforting. As a group, we knew something big was happening, and we had no idea what to do about it.
As the SVP of Global Interactive, I traveled quite a bit, and spending time in NYC was not unusual. On this particular day, I found myself as one the most senior people in the office. As people turned to me for direction, I truly had no idea what we should do. Perhaps we were safe where we were. I did not know how close we were to the World Trade Center. 10 blocks. I could not imagine what had really happened to the buildings. Terrorists with planes. Nor was it clear what sky scrapers would do when hit in this fashion. Fall down.
As the first part of the Twin Towers start to crumble, we took action. “We are out of here!” We all grabbed our belongings and headed down stairs, with the directive to stay on the river. Out on the street, we were not alone. There were people everywhere-- people on the move. We soon found a groove in the wave of people working as a group to get out of harm’s way.
As we watched both buildings tumble behind us, we could not fathom the reality of the disaster, the magnitude of the damage, or the change to our lives. The buildings, complete with holes and smoke, were there one minute, gone the next. Our naïve faith in the safety of America was intact one minute, gone the next.
As the anniversary of this day approaches, I find myself reflecting on the transformative power of just one day. The buildings we thought would always stand tall, fallen. People we loved, gone. Activities we assumed to be safe, hazardous. Priorities we thought to be critical, trivial.
9/11 serves as a reminder to me every day to live each day to the fullest, to take advantage of every opportunity, and to enjoy the amazing opportunities that take shape before us.
