I will never forget…9/11/01

 

I remember exactly where I was, what I did, how I just wanted my son with me (he was in school) so I could protect him some how, some way. 

I remember how in disbelief I watched the plane hit the second tower, holding my breath, thinking how it couldn’t really be happening.  Not in my country, not in the United States of America.

I remember being glued to the TV, I wanted to see it all, hear every news report about this disaster. I remember my son asking me why it kept happening…he assumed every time the footage was on TV it was happening again.  That was when I turned off the TV.  I hadn’t considered this was how a 7 year old might translate the relentless footage of the airplane hitting the tower, the people running and screaming.

I remember how packed the church was the Sunday after…full of people wanting reassurance that life would be the same again, full of people wanting to be with family and friends.  And there wasn’t a dry eye in that church when the choir sang America the Beautiful. 

 

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet

Whose stern impassion'd stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness.

America! America!

God mend thine ev'ry flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control,

Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes prov'd

In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country lov'd,

And mercy more than life.

America! America!

May God thy gold refine

Till all success be nobleness,

And ev'ry gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream

That sees beyond the years

Thine alabaster cities gleam

Undimmed by human tears.

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea.

Ellen