A Star in My Own Universe

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I Will Never Forget, Part 3

Last year, I started writing about my experience on September 11th and could never finish. I'm going to try to do that today. Here is the link back.I was on the island and my husband was in Queens. Manhattan had been shut down -- no trains in and out. All bridges closed. I could not go home. I was scared and I could not be with the one person I wanted most to be with.I started walking South. I had friends in Mid-town and I hoped that one would be home. I walked from the West 90s to West 57th. I passed groups of people standing stunned -- some talking, some quiet. All were affected profoundly.I remember that the city seemed unnaturally quiet. I don't remember sirens. Something makes me think that they were already far south of me. I walked and walked. I tried to call my friend who live in the Actors building but still no answer. Cell phone service was very spotty as all of Manhattan tried to call. I continued towards her. Had she not been home, I would have kept walking. I had other friends further South and I had to find someone. I did not want to be alone.Finally, I reached my friend's building and as I was walking in, she was coming out of the media room. She had missed my calls to her land line because she was with other tenants watching the news. We headed up to her apartment where I could try to call my husband again. When the Towers finally fell, the cell service ground to a halt (many carriers used the Towers as receivers).When I called my husband, his voice sounded different than I had ever heard it before in the previous 14 years. I knew that not only had the world changed but my life changed.That's all I can write for now. Even though I wasn't in the Towers that day, it is still hard to remember life in New York that day -- the smell, the smoke, the fear. I will never forget.