Thursday, September 11, 2008

Seven years ago

It's only been seven years, but it feels almost like yesterday. September 11. 11 september. 9-11. I can still recall the weary, stunned feelings and everything that happened that day.

This is my story of my September 11, 2001, a warm, fall day in Northern California.

"I woke up from a phone ringing really early in the morning. After awhile I realized it was my cell phone, ringing at 6 am something. I decided to ignore it, must be some confused Swede wanting to talk to me, unaware of time difference, but it kept ringing.

By the time I found the phone in the hall I had missed the calls. Then the Husband got an sms on his phone next to mine. I thought this was weird, and just got a bad feeling and did something I normally wouldn't do, I read his sms. "Scary things going on over there!" was the message from one of his friends in Sweden.

I decided to turn on the computer and check the news. Usually when we have people call and weird hours it has been an earthquake somewhere in California and the family worry.

But I couldn't get to any of the news sites. They were all overloaded. A feeling in my tummy made me turn on the TV instead to check the news. The local channel, normally showing the first hour of the morning show at this time, was now showing news feeds from CNN.

I wasn't sure I was really awake, but it looked like both of the World Trade Center towers were on fire.

I called out for the Husband, still sound asleep, to tell him something weird was going on. By the time he got up, the first tower fell before our eyes. It was 6.59 am in California. We still were not sure what we were seeing, just barely awake still.

Still in pajamas we spent the next couple of hours confused, trying to get in touch with the Husband's sister and husband then living on Manhattan, figuring out what was going on, trying to call family in Sweden to ensure them that we were ok, far from any real action (they were, the Brother-in-Law watched the tower fall from his office window). Phone systems were over loaded. We finally got through using an internet phone line and had family do phone chains to those we couldn't get hold of.

My Husband took off for work eventually. Only to come back a couple of hours later, work having been canceled. For several days the big channels didn't broadcast anything but news. No commercials. Only news.

My mom was supposed to arrive from Sweden two days later. She arrived 7 days later since there were no planes in the air for several days."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jag kommer också ihåg exakt hur det kändes, hur overkligt allt kändes och hemskt!! Än idag känns det overkligt , att något sådant kan ha hänt. Men tyvärr har det hänt..

Annika said...

Visst, man minns varenda minut i princip. Det var en så overklig DAG. Och vi satt liksom mitt i allt...Usch...
Det var så MÄRKLIGT så PÅTAGLIGT hur tyst det var i luftrummet veckan efter attackerna. Och på nätterna dundrade stora militärhelikoptrar över oss på väg till och från Dulles Airport. Kusligt.

Anna, Fair and True said...

Tänk att det redan gått sju år! Jag var i New York i mellandagarna det året, dvs endast 3-4 månader sedan, och då hade de ju fortfarande inte röjt upp allt på Ground Zero.

Jag minns även 11 september för att det var den dagen som Anna Lindh mördades. Nu fem år sedan.

JaCal said...

Veronika - ja, den känslan sitter nog i... usch.

Annika - ja, var ju ännu närmare och ännu tydligare koppling - hua... Tänk att hela landet var nerstängt.

Anna - ja, de har mycket kvar på GroundZero. Ja, jag minns så väl när jag gick upp på natten här och slog i gång datorn för jag ville se hur det gick efter att ha följt rapporteringen fram till läggdags och möttes av dödsbeskedet och satt i tystnaden i en halv värld borta och var så ledsen. Så fruktansvärt onödigt hemskt.