In Remembrance

I'm sitting on my couch, watching footage of people running from the Twin Towers and firefighters from Ladder 7 all saying the same thing, "It's like it happened just yesterday." I have to admit, I feel a little bit of guilt, because I rarely think about it. I was 15 years old when the attacks on 9/11 happened and it was horrible then. And somehow now it breaks my heart more. Maybe because I'm an adult and process it differently. Maybe because I am a mom and imagine one of those people being my son or me dying and leaving my son. Maybe because I watched my husband leave for a war that was spawned by this and come back a different person. I don't know, but it hurts just the same.

How many times do you stop to think about what the people who lived through it, who were in a tower, who lost their husband or wife on that day? I admit, I rarely do. Only when this horrible anniversary approaches and for a few days after. Then it is back to business, back to trying to live life and make it to the next day. But now I'm sitting here thinking about these people who have to live it every, single day. The men and women who have flashbacks, who remember the last phone calls they received from their wives and husbands and parents, the ones that ran from the burning towers, those stuck on hijacked planes...It breaks my heart.

Days like today make me stop and think about just how lucky I am. I am so thankful I have my family, my son, and am not one of the people who lost someone that day. It makes my appreciation for firefighters, police officers, medics, and the military only grow. Heroes don't have to wear capes, they are people we all see on 9/11 coverage every year. The first responders, the people holding each other's hands and saying prayers together while escaping the towers, the troops immediately deployed...those are real heroes. The men and women widowed by these attacks and the children who are growing up without a parent and the parents who lost their child, those are real heroes.

If anything today makes me want to give an extra hug to my son. To tell him I love him one time too many. This reminds me that while the USA is resilient, our community came together, and we have prevailed, we are not promised tomorrow. We cannot control the future or other people and no one, especially me, ever expected for anything like this to happen, but it did. So today reminds me that we should never take anything for granted, to tell the ones we love that we love them, and to never forget.