Aardvark
9:15pm, September 11, 2005
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[Delete] | Sabi: For September 11, 2001: It was my sister's 30th birthday, a landmark birthday for many. Ruined by arrogant assholes who thought they could destroy a country by doing something that only (for a brief moment) unite everyone and turn many towards hatered and predjuice.. Fate spared my Pop's for that day. He worked near the Trade Center towers. As something had told him to sleep in and take the later train in. If he had gone to work on time, the train he would have been on, was buried under the second tower. But many were not so lucky. May their spirits find peace somehow.
K: My sister's wedding was scheduled for September 15, 2001. My grandfather, who was in a nursing home in wonderful condition and high spirits, couldn't have been happier. For a month preceding the wedding, he told everyone who would listen that his granddaughter was getting married. It was amazing, considering my sister was the daughter of my father's first wive, and so wasn't even related to my grandfather. September 11th came like a normal day. I was seated in my chair in band, seventh grade, when the announcement came. It was difficult to hear in the band hall, but something about the Pentagon and attacks. I didn't think much of it. Stuff happened all the time. A flute player who sat next to me mentioned that her grandmother lived near the Pentagon, but she didn't seem worried either. We went through our music as we always did, and I went to my advanced English class. It was there that I learned how dreadful it actually was. I watched the second plane hit the Trade Center and I watched the towers fall. It was unbelievable. Something in me thought the teachers were exaggerating when they said that this event would be one of the largest in history. I remember my fear that a plane would crash into our school and kill us all. My mom picked me up from school early and took me over to a nearby city where my dad was giving blood. There had been a blood drive scheduled for that day at the high school nearby, but the people running it had run out of bags for the blood and we were forced to go elsewhere. We spent three hours waiting for my father to give blood, and I bought the first issue of the New York Times special edition on the attacks. I couldn't believe it.
I was often teased and treated badly in school, so on the thirteenth, I told a group of people that had just been extremely awful to me that I was going to transfer to the other middle school in the city. I knew that I'd be gone Friday and all weekend, so that would make them worry.
On Thursday, the 13th, after school my family drove up to Illinois where my sister's wedding was to be held. We got in to stay at my father's parents' house at about one in the morning. At three my mom woke me and asked ifI wanted to go with them. My Grandpa, her father, was in the hospital. They didn't know what was wrong, but suddenly he was in terrible shape. I was exhausted from the drive and told her I'd visit him later in the day. At about four thirty, my grandmother woke me and told me my mom was on the phone. I couldn't understand her at first. Her words were slurred and difficult to hear through the sniffles and sobs. I remember her saying that she loved me and she called me 'honey' and said something else. Then I heard "Grandpa's gone." I didn't speak. I couldn't speak. I couldn't even cry. It was like I was having a nightmare and it was unreal. My grandpa couldn't die. Nobody I loved could actually ever die. not even the ones that were already gone.
We think he gave up in the end. Just lost the will to live. My grandfather had been a POW in the second world war and was awarded a bronze star and purple heart, among other things. He was a hero in every sense of the word. He told the man interviewing him when he received his medals that no man should get a medal for killing another man. Hearing the reports that this was another Pearl Harbor... my grandpa probably couldn't stand the thought of more fighting.
My sister's wedding was a happy occasion, though they did mention that my grandpa had died and we had a moment of silence. His funeral was Monday. I got back to school on Wednesday. I guess I really did scare the people into thinking I'd left.
I'm never going to forget the eleventh. |
