20 Years
What will we be like as a society on September 11, 2051? Will we remember? And what, if anything, will we have learned?
For those of us old enough to recall that fateful September morning when the world changed forever, this will always be a somber day marked by remembrance and honor for those who were lost.
Everyone who was alive then has a 9/11 story. What they were doing that morning, where they were when they heard the news.
Twenty years ago, I was 32 and working as the Director of Corporate and Public Relations at a residential facility for children and adults in Langhorne, Pa., a suburban Philadelphia community in Bucks County that was (and still is) home to countless of people who commuted to their jobs in New York. That day, 18 people from Bucks County would die in the attacks. I was running late that morning and driving to work on Rt. 1, listening to the radio (the country music station, for some reason).
My thoughts were most likely on our twins. They were due in mid-December, three months away, but we knew they would probably arrive early. (They did, on Thanksgiving Day.) The Husband and I had spent the weekend painting their nursery bright yellow with a sun, moon and stars theme for the saying that guided me during our infertility years — Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars. A bright spot in what was, for reasons I won’t get into here, an especially difficult and stressful time despite our excited preparations and joy about being expectant first-time parents.
The news came on the radio that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center.