Eleven

Eleven years ago today.  What does Herself remember about that day?

I remember walking with Offspring the First and Offspring the second -- eight and six years old, respectively --  from where I had parked the car, toward the grade school.  Offspring the Third, not yet three, was probably in the stroller or in the carrying sling. A woman we saw sometimes while walking that block was just a few steps ahead of us, and she started saying things I didn't understand, about New York, about planes. Wanting her to stop talking, knowing something was very wrong, hearing words from her young children's mouths that couldn't possibly be true.  My phone ringing, and Beloved Husband's voice on the other end, breaking as he told me that someone had flown a plane deliberately into the Twin Towers. I tried to reassure him somehow, told him I'd go right home after I dropped the kids at school, I'd turn on the TV and try to find out more and let him know.  Then shielding young Offspring the Third from the news with books and toys, and afterwards sitting, tears streaming, watching the Horror unfold on the television while Offspring the Third took his nap blissfully unawares. Worrying about what Offspring the First and Offspring the Second were told at school.  Were they frightened? Were they sheltered? Did they feel safe?

Exactly one week earlier, my parents had gone to visit my sister and her husband who were stationed in Hawaii.  On September 4, they took a particular flight out of Boston. On September 11, that same flight -- same number, same departure time -- was hijacked as part of the attack.  It gave me chills knowing that if my parents had arranged their trip differently, they would have been irretrievably mixed with the dust of the twin towers.

The photographs, the footage, the printed words. Unimaginable, and yet, actual. Real. The world had suddenly became a wrathful, fearsome place.

I still cannot bear to think about the last terrible moments of those on the planes, those in the buildings, those on the ground.  So much was snatched from us that day. A piece of humanity, gone.  Innocence, forever shattered.

Godspeed, souls.