[JViello]

Originally Posted by JayCT

I understand. I called my friend's mother hoping that he was traveling that week as he often did. He was not. He was there. I did not know what to say. I called my family to tell them to get to her immediately since she was alone. One of the worst days of my life. I hope your friend was okay. Jay

He made it out alive. Bruised and batterred but alive. I actually said it wrong. He was emailing me from his Blackberry as phone service was down. It basically said something to the effect of "under attack, running for my life, please call my wife and tell her I love her".

I called and she was like "Yea okay Jay...is this some radio prank". No. It's not. This is real. Silence.

My brother was working and living in Midtown at the time, we lost contact etc etc.

Just bad stuff. To this day I have not visited the site. Not sure if I want to still.

[Uconn97]

Originally Posted by JViello

He made it out alive. Bruised and batterred but alive. I actually said it wrong. He was emailing me from his Blackberry as phone service was down. It basically said something to the effect of "under attack, running for my life, please call my wife and tell her I love her".

I called and she was like "Yea okay Jay...is this some radio prank". No. It's not. This is real. Silence.

My brother was working and living in Midtown at the time, we lost contact etc etc.

Just bad stuff. To this day I have not visited the site. Not sure if I want to still.

I've never been to the site either. I just don't ever want to see it.

[Rich Lee]

I have been to Ground Zero for no other reason than to try to grasp the reality of it. Seeing the "bath tub" where the Towers once stood was one thing, but seeing how the subway maps were changed and the stop was eliminated were a bit much.

[weesy68]

We got married on 9/10, and were driving to the airport on that beautiful morning, commenting on how wonderful the view of the towers was as we crossed the bridge on our way there. Once at the airport we realized after half an hour or so that all activity had stopped. Everyone's phones started to ring. We were told by fellow passengers to go the TV in the bar, as we got there the second plane hit. An evacuation order went out, they cleared the airport. We stood in front of LaGuardia with thousands of others, and amazingly the cab driver who had dropped us off spotted us and picked us up. He drove us as far as the Queensboro Bridge, which was closed to traffic, we then walked across it into Manhattan (we lived at W207th Street at the time) against this enormous tide of shocked people, it was a scene from a horror movie. The second tower had just fallen and we watched the plumes of dust cover Brooklyn. On the other side we managed to share a cab with a young girl who got out in the 60's, it took us over two hours to get home. Midtown was insane, as we got further and further uptown everything looked eerily normal. My brother and aunt were visiting from England, and were getting ready to visit the Observatory Deck when the first plane hit, neighbors told then not to leave the apartment.

All in all a day of near misses for us, we could potentially have been on a hijacked plane, and I could have lost family. We spent two days glued to the TV, just crying. I was furious for weeks afterwards, at the loss of life, the stupidity, the loss of our honeymoon, NYC was changed forever in an irreparable way. For months afterwards I cringed every time I heard a plane.

On a weird note, I had a very strong premonition of the second attack on the day the first attack happened in 1993, I told my husband that they would attack from the air next time.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by JViello

To this day I have not visited the site. Not sure if I want to still.

I am not sure I can either. I have been to Manhattan a number of times since but have not gone downtown. A few times I have been in towers with views of that area and I have paused with an errie feeling that I have to snap myself out of. Not good to be in a meeting with a client and get all weird. We talk about going and I want my kids to see and understand what happened. They know our friend's family well and know they lost someone there but I do not think that they realize how aweful it really was. Again I need to snap myself out of it. Jay

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by JayCT

I am not sure I can either. I have been to Manhattan a number of times since but have not gone downtown. A few times I have been in towers with views of that area and I have paused with an errie feeling that I have to snap myself out of. Not good to be in a meeting with a client and get all weird. We talk about going and I want my kids to see and understand what happened. They know our friend's family well and know they lost someone there but I do not think that they realize how aweful it really was. Again I need to snap myself out of it. Jay

I visited on 9/11 of 2005 at night. It was too hard and I don't think I'll go back even though there is nothing there. I may go back when it looks completely different.

On 9/11 of last year, I spent the day in Danbury. I drove down Main Street four times running back and forth throughout the day, and one elderly gentleman was sitting in front of the 9/11 memorial there - he sat there from sun-up to sundown. A friend said he believes it is the grandfather of the 20 year old college student from Danbury who died in the attacks.

It wasn't only Fairfield County that was hit by the attacks. I was sorting through our basement the other day because we're moving, and I found the saved newspapers from 9/12/01. The youngest person to die on 9/11 was from New London - she was flying with her mom to Disneyland (4 years old). There were also people from Stafford Springs, Wallingford, West Haven, Newington, and many other towns. Many were also not listed as being from CT because they were living in New York or Boston at the time (many were college kids, or just out of college). I know Southbury lost 2 of their recent high school grads who were living in Hoboken at the time. I also remember that the Ansonia Middle School left for Manhattan at 6:30 that morning and had it not been for traffic, the middle schoolers would have been at the top of the viewing deck by 8:15.

Jay - sorry about your friend. And JV - glad your friend was able to make it out.

I'm still not sure how I'm going to describe the attacks when my little one gets older. It's in textbooks obviously, but the discription in those books hardly gives a feel of what it was like to live through that day.

[ginrock77]

I remember that morning very well. The weather was perfect and The Today Show started with Michael Jordan's decision to return to the NBA. I said to my husband, "It must be a slow news day if this is the top story." How I regretted that statement later. I was 30 weeks pregnant and ended up in the hospital the next day. My son was born in early November and a few days later the next plane crashed into the neighborhood. It was a very unsettling time that i will never forget.

[kidyankee764]

Found this when surfing the net:

Connecticut's Sept. 11 Victims -- Courant.com