[ghfromaltonbay]

I was at work in northern NJ on what started as a beautiful late summer day. Someone in another cubicle called out that a plane had just hit the WTC and we thought "how could someone not see the building in this clear weather, perhaps the pilot of a small plane had a medical issue", but then she screamed that a 2nd plane had hit the other tower. We rushed into the break room to see the TV and just outside the door I met a colleague who was white as a sheet. He told me his brother-in-law worked on the upper floors of WTC I at Cantor Fitzgerald. We watched the TV and prayed that all would be able to get out. The towers were less than 10 miles from our job. When they collapsed we were all stunned. As I drove home for lunch I could see the large plume of smoke where the towers had stood. I'll never forget the feeling I had in the pit of my stomach looking at what seemed like a nuclear mushroom clould. Unfortunately, in the next few days I learned that not only had my colleague lost his best friend (his brother-in-law), but my cousin lost her brother-in-law @ Marsh McLennan, my beautician lost TWO nephews who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, and another former colleague at Verizon lost his 26 year old son who was in tower 2 @ AON. Every Sept. 11th these men and their 11 children who lost their Dad's are on my mind.

These days when I drive on Interstate 80 East near Giant stadium I can see the new tower going up at the 9/11 site. The skyline really has changed since 2001. Every time I re-watch my favorite movie Moonstruck I get a chill when the opening shot shows the twin towers with all the lights twinkling. I visited the top once back in the late 1970's and the view from the top was gorgeous. How life has changed since 9/11/01.