Personal 911 Remembrance

Short remembrance-Sitting in front of my computer when there was a noise outside our office on 29 St off First Avenue in NYC Sept 11th:
The noise became louder and I went outside to see what was happening. People were starting to come out of neighboring apartment buildings and saying something about bombs and airplanes. I ran back inside and the office staff was listening to the radio that was describing the second plane hitting the WTC. Like the day of the Kennedy assassination, we were all disbelieving what was happening. Unlike that day I was much older and the consequences appeared much more ominous.
We did not have a TV in the office so all the destruction and confusion happening only a couple of miles away downtown could not be seen but mostly heard.
I can’t exactly remember if is was later that day or the next day that thousands of people were frantically gathered by Bellevue Hospital (the city’s largest public hospital) looking for missing family or friends. This facility was literally 500 feet from our office so we had an immediate emotional relationship to the events quickly unfolding.
Almost immediately hundreds then thousands of missing persons flyers were posted on any available wall, pole or bust stop surrounding the hospital in hopes of others recognized and reuniting dazed or wounded WTC workers with loved ones.
It was surreal seeing this outpouring of distraught people desperately seeking their friends, siblings, parents or co-workers. Unfortunately the City Morgue, which was just down the street, was also gearing up for the worst. We here we were caught in the center of the storm watching thousands of worried sick people waiting for days outside of the Hospital as ambulances and emergency vehicles screamed up First Avenue with remains of unfortunate WTC workers.
The immediate discovery of the attack, visual impact of flyers typed or scrawled with old or new photos of the missing that were taped or hammered onto whatever remaining blank space, emergency vehicle sirens screaming up and down the streets, vacant looks on faces of all nations, and the sight of large tents being assembled to hold bodies and parts behind the morgue today remain in my mind as we reach yet another sad anniversary of destruction.
During the first or second day I literally bumped into one of my former Kodak reps. I asked what he was doing here but really knew the answer. He told me he was missing his wife of only a few months. Did I see her as he showed me his flyer. I said no. What else could I say? Trying my best to be optimistic I suggested that he head inside the Hospital and look for the list of casualties being posted. Silently he turned and walked away in a daze. I heard that she was never found.
My heart goes out to all the people that unexpectedly had their loved brother and sisters brutally taken from their lives. May they have come to terms with this savage expression of religion by a few deranged individuals and found peace and renewed happiness.
Peace be with them.