When the buildings I loved collapsed...

I thought K was joking when he emailed me that I had to turn on the TV because airplanes had hit the WTC and the twin towers had collapsed. I tuned in and I could hardly comprehend what I saw -- a huge cloud of smoke coming from Lower Manhattan and no more twin towers.

Instantly, I became histerical (particularly because of that) and I only calmed down somewhat when I went outside and hugged my neighbor. I thought the world was ending, literally.

I really loved those buildings and I had been up there twice (in 1993 and 1996). In addition, only a few weeks earlier we'd driven a friend to NYC and stopped next to the Brooklyn bridge in Brooklyn to take photos of the bridge with the twin towers in the background. I was really really sad and shocked that they were gone and that so many people had died. It felt unreal and surreal at the same time...

I have already posted some photos that we took at the WTC, as well as one of Rudy Giuliani visiting the towers on his last day in office, but I need to post this one (taken on July 15, 1993 by K) once more:

It's impossible to forget that chaotic day... And deep down I'm grateful that I didn't see the towers collapsing live. That would have been utterly unbelievable and even more shocking than it was learning about it when they were already gone. Feeling physically ill about what happened -- and scared to death for the baby inside me -- would have been even worse, I think, had I watched live. I made a conscious decision not to watch any images of that day again today... and I was a bit taken aback to find out that they showed them to my sons at school on Friday. I wish I had been with them (particularly my youngest) when they saw it. I think it's a hard event for a young child to understand...

I think it's sad that they were both born into the post-9-11 world, their childhood will never have the same innocence that mine did. The world is a different, scarier place (particularly living in this country). In that sense, it's important that they know.