While we wrap up a shortened but hectic week here at LauraLaw, we are all taking some time to reflect, as the rest of the Nation does, on the terror attacks of September 11, 2015. While it is hard for us to believe that 14 years have passed since the attacks, we can each remember exactly where we were when we heard about American Airlines Flight 11 colliding with the North Tower of the World Trade Center, and as we watched United Airlines Flight 175 collide with the South Tower, American Airlines Flight 77 collide with the Pentagon, and United Airlines Flight 93 collide with the ground outside of Pittsburgh thanks to its heroic band of passengers.
Laura remembers watching television as she got ready for work that morning and seeing the first plane hit. She had an instant feeling that more horror was imminent and actually watched as the second plane hit. Coincidentally, Laura had kept her kids, then 10 and 7 years old, home from school that morning because one was sick and the other was allowed to play hooky. As she drove to work at 26th & Cal., somewhere on the Kennedy between Harlem and Lawrence, she received a call from her boss, as so many people did that day, telling her to turn around; the courthouse was closing. While she drove, the twin towers started crumbling, and when she got home, she spent the rest of the day glued to her television set, on the phone with one of her girlfriends, in shock of the surreal images coming through her screen. Like so many others, Laura has a distinct memory of her desperation to reach one of her closest friends Gayle, who lived in Manhattan. She vividly remembers the feeling of panic as the circuits remained busy, and it was only after an email came through that she learned that Gayle was safe. One memory that will always stick with Laura is the sound of silence at her house that day. Living in the O’Hare flight path, she has grown accustomed to the noise of airplanes landing and taking off from one of the world’s busiest airports. But that day, as flights around the world were grounded, all she could hear was silence. She and her friend thought that life as we knew it would never be the same.
As Maddy emerged from the Jackson Blue Line stop on her way to work at the Monadnock Building, she could sense that something was different about that morning. The buzz and energy that typically permeates the streets of the Loop on a Tuesday morning were conspicuously replaced with the sobering calm that blanketed the city while Chicagoans collectively watched with confusion as smoke billowed from 1 World Trade Center. She made her way up the elevator to her office, only to find everyone huddled around the television in her boss’s office. Before she and her co-workers could comprehend what they were witnessing, they saw the second plane fly directly into the South Tower. She remembers everyone in the Loop sharing a combined feeling of fear and uncertainty as federal buildings and national landmarks loomed above them. She quickly located one of her closest friends, and when they were told that the Blue Line had suspended service, they hiked several blocks until they could find a taxi to take them back to Humboldt Park. Once back in the neighborhood, Maddy picked up her daughter, the 10, from school and went to her mother’s house where she watched with her family, and the entire world, as we sifted through the smoke and ruin to decipher what was happening.
As a bright-eyed and ambitious freshman at UW-Madison, Tim remembers that he was on his way back to the dorm from class when he passed one of his friends who told him that a plane had just flown in to the World Trade Center. Not fully comprehending the magnitude of what happened, Tim assumed that she meant that a private prop plane had flown in the building, and he remembers thinking that it can be dangerous for unexperienced pilots to fly so close to such large buildings. By the time he returned to his floor, all of its residents were gathered in the den, watching the big screen TV, where he arrived as the second plane hit. He remembers that for the rest of the day, and even the rest of the week, not only did everyone skip the classes that weren’t cancelled, but they didn’t leave that den. For days, they remained glued to CNN as facts started to come through, stories started to be told, and the horror started to set in.
As we think about where we were on September 11, 2001, it is impossible not to think about how lucky we are to be here today. So many people lost loved ones on that day and in the decade and a half that has followed. Men and women bravely gave their lives to save their neighbors, and many continue to do so in response to the attacks of that Tuesday morning. The slogan “Never Forget” was almost immediately attached to the attacks, and it still rings true. We here at LauraLaw will never forget, and it’s important to continue to remember. We are in awe that although the world did indeed change that fateful day, the dedication of so many first responders and heroes has allowed America to rebound and regrow as she always has. So we go into this weekend with the same vow we’ve pledged since that day: Never Forget.
