Release Date: September 11, 2024
I remember in the hours, days and weeks following the attacks on September 11, 2001 thinking I would never forget the details of that day. That they would be with me for a lifetime as part of my personal history.
I was, of course, wrong.
Twenty-three years have passed, and, although I have a few very vivid memories from that time, much of what I remember today probably came from news reports and documentaries rather than my own experiences.
Why? Because in thinking I could never forget the horror of those moments, I didn’t bother to preserve my own memories. Sort of ironic for someone who has kept a journal since she was 12, right?
Today I’m rectifying that. Someday in the future, my grandchildren are going to read about 9/11 and wonder what it felt like to be alive on that historic day, and I want them to hear it from me.
I want them to know I sat in front of the TV every night silently sobbing into a pillow so I wouldn’t wake my kids. That for months I stiffened every time a plane passed overhead. That I interviewed a local priest who was supposed to be in the building, but stopped for coffee instead, and that, to this day, I fight back tears while singing the Star Spangled Banner, remembering the first time we sang it after 9/11 and how all the players and everyone in the stands held hands.
I want them to know how 9/11 changed me as a human, an American, a mother, a writer. A believer. And how it changed the world we left them.
And I want them to hear it from someone they knew and trusted and loved.
I’m a big believer in the value of prompts when it comes to preserving personal history, and have used them for years both in my own journaling practice and in conducting oral histories and family history interviews. Here are some AI-generated prompts I’ll be using today as I put together my 9/11 story. I’m sharing them here just in case you’re of the mind to do some memory preserving work today, as well.
1. Where were you when you first heard about the 9/11 attacks? Describe the moment in detail.
2. What was your initial reaction when you realized the severity of the attacks?
3. How did the events of 9/11 impact your sense of safety and security?
4. What were the immediate changes you noticed in your community or workplace following the attacks?
5. How did you communicate with family and friends on 9/11? What were those conversations like?
6. What emotions did you experience in the days and weeks following the attacks? How did you cope with them?
7. Describe any significant changes in your worldview or beliefs as a result of 9/11.
8. Did you attend any memorials, vigils, or community gatherings in the aftermath? What was that experience like?
9. How did 9/11 influence your relationships with family, friends, or colleagues?
10. What do you remember about the media coverage on 9/11 and the days that followed? How did it shape your understanding of the events?
11. Were there any acts of kindness or solidarity that stood out to you after 9/11? How did they impact you?
12. Did the events of 9/11 affect your sense of national identity or patriotism? If so, how?
13. How did you explain the events of 9/11 to children or younger family members at the time?
14. What long-term effects did 9/11 have on your life or the lives of those around you?
15. Reflect on any travel experiences after 9/11. How did they differ from your previous experiences?
16. How did 9/11 impact your views on global events, politics, or foreign policy?
17. What are your thoughts on the ways 9/11 is commemorated today? How do you feel it should be remembered?
18. How did 9/11 shape your perspective on resilience and recovery, both personally and as a society?
19. If you could speak to future generations about 9/11, what lessons would you want them to take away from your experience?
20. Looking back, how do you feel your understanding of 9/11 has evolved over time? What insights have you gained?
Lori,
As I was reviewing my Facebook memories for this day, I came across a memory from a friend whom we met in Saudi Arabia and was at the time in Ankara, Turkey.
I was in The house that we had settled down in Ankara - Turkey that day. It was two years since we had retired from Aramco.
I was sitting at the kitchen table checking my e-mails on my lap top. My husband Shevket called from upstairs saying that something strange is happening in the USA and that I should turn on the TV news. But just then the yahoo screen started to give the news. I watched the second airplane hitting the tower live. We were both tongue tied. I still turn rigid upon remembering the event.
Later that night, I remembered that the taxi driver who was taking us from the airport to our hotel on our first trip to NY had told us to visit the twin towers. Erol was only 5 years old and was busy throwing up into the small bag that I had picked up from the airplane because his stomach was upset. Aaaand I regret not having toured the twin towers on that trip.
A few hours later our son called from the USA. He was a boarding student in Boston at the time. I thought he had remembered that trip and would tell me that he wished we had entered inside the twin towers. But noooo. He spoke in a low voice and said “Maaam what is happening. Why this. Why a moslem did this. My school friends have started to look at me with suspicion. Are we that baaad”. I felt a huge disappointment and fear in his voice.
I called a friend of mine. They took my son from his dorm and let him stay in their house that day. They took him to a fancy breakfast the next morning to build some morale.
I guess his friends got back with him because he never complained again.
But his grades were the lowest that term. He recovered later and graduated with an average above 3.5. It effected religions of all kinds. Mostly the humans.
Sorry I am late writing this comment but I saw it just now. I have been busy lately taking care of my sister who got the c- disease. So not much time to spare on the internet.
Thanks Lori,
This is something I wrote back in 2021. At that time America was remembering the 20th anniversary.
I wrote this memory 2 years ago. It is hard to realize that there are young adults in their twenties who have no memory of this day and have only learned about it from school textbooks or memories shared by family members.
September 11, 2001 a day our generation will never forget, because it changed the course of history. 9-11 as we often refer to the day are also the 3 numbers we use when we place an emergency phone call. And what an emergency! Commercial Air traffic literally stood still for days. People were stranded, some far from home until the air embargo was lifted.
Peter and I were in Saudi Arabia that day. Peter had spent the day at work and I had been out shopping in town with some friends in the local Big city. At 5 o'clock my friend, Nancy Heitmeyer, called and said "Do you have a tv in your apartment?". Yes, we do. "Turn it on, something unbelievable is happening in the United States. A plane has hit the Twin Towers in NYC." Oh, it must have been one of those small private planes. "No, it is a commercial airliner!" So I turned on the tv and looked for a news channel. And as I heard the news, I watched a 2nd commercial plane hit the Twin Towers. I sat down on the nearest chair stunned. We spent the remainder of the evening watching the scene and getting updates on the situation at Janice Ann Cameron-Taylor and Ron Ronald D Taylor's home where they had a large screen tv and a satellite feed. Janice was more shook up than the rest of us because she knew what it was like to be on a hijacked airline. That night she told us an unbelievable story of how she had been working on a Pan AM flight when it had been hijacked and eventually blown up in the desert. We were all so stunned we forgot to ask questions. But her story and what we were seeing that night on satellite tv left us stunned.
I had many friends, like Amal Shalaby Gharbo, who had just dropped their sons or daughters off at boarding school for their first year of school away from home. In fact I had only arrived back in Saudi Arabia myself. Those friends were stranded in airports across the US, many having no idea why their planes had made an emergency landing or why their flights were cancelled.
All of a sudden people's plans changed! Important events were missed or cancelled all together. In my parent's case, my Mom's older sister, Titi Mary died in Puerto Rico on September 11, 2001 and my parents were unable to attend the funeral. Additionally for years as we focused on 9-11 we somehow missed that September 11 was Peter's father's birthday. By 2001 Peter's dad had been deceased for 11 years and his family had never been keen on having big birthday celebrations, so it wasn't till a few years ago when we were working on Peter's family tree that I realized the connection.
We flew from Saudi Arabia on September 16 for Amsterdam and London. In London we met Americans who were stranded even though flights had been resumed, there were thousands of airline passengers trying to rebook on a limited number of flights that were allowed to return to the US from abroad. Later that month we boarded a river cruise in Amsterdam and discovered that about half of our fellow cruise passengers had cancelled their reservations because they were afraid to fly or leave the US. We spent many hours on that cruise helping fellow cruise passengers interpret news feeds about the Muslim world. Upon returning to Saudi Arabia in mid October we came face to face with pandemonium. People were terrified. People were angry. People wanted to go home. All of a sudden fellow workers and friends were looking at one another with suspicion and jaundiced eyes. Individuals clustered in small groups whispering. Rumors ran rampant in both the North American expat community and the Muslim community. A large corporation of more than 60 nationalities all of a sudden fractured into many splintered parts and looked at one another with suspicion and maybe a bit of fear. People were on edge. The US embassy sent out emissaries to calm citizen's fears. And families were leaving Saudi Arabia in droves. Many individuals received phone calls from family and friend back home imploring them with tears to return to the US. Several of our long time friends heeded the call and turned in their resignation and went back home. It was years before the employees, their families, and the company my husband worked for began to calm down. Over night an ugly wall of suspicion ripped through our community often dividing friends and their opinions of one another's country and fellow citizens. Some of those wounds never healed. I think the same in a larger sense is true here in the US with our response to immigrants and refugees from Muslim majority countries. I pray that as we came to forgive Japan for Pearl Harbor that we as a country will set aside our hatred and our deep revulsion for what happened on 9-11 and learn to forgive those nations and religions that to us signify the enemy responsible for this horrible travesty.