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It was a wonderful fall day in Raleigh.  I was staying home while Cindy was working.  Sophie was days shy of being three months old, and was still an itty-bitty little baby.  I was sitting in Cindy’s rocking chair, feeding Sophie, when Cindy called and told me about the crash and had me turn on the TV.

I’ll never forget that for as long as I live.  I remember watching, mesmerized, as I saw the planes crash into the Towers.  I remember hearing of other hijackings of other planes.  I remember hearing of the heroic efforts by the passengers of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania — they knew they were going to die, but they also knew that this was an attack, and they weren’t going to sit by and wait for it to happen again.

I remember hearing how the airlines were all grounded — every single plane — and jumping ahead a bit, I remember being at Lowes several days later when I first saw a plane in the sky again.  It was so odd to see after so long of not seeing any aircraft.

Back to September 11.  I remember that Sophie and I were supposed to have lunch with our friend Lisa, and when I called Lisa, we both wondered if it was safe to go and still have lunch.  In the end, we decided that yes, we would have lunch, that there were far more important places than Raleigh to attack, and that we shouldn’t let this stop us from doing what we would normally do.  We shouldn’t let the Terrorists win like that.

I remember holding Cindy when she got home from work that day.  I remember the three of us hugging it out, locking our doors, we were afraid.  I’ll never forget Cindy telling me that she wanted Sophie to sleep between us that night.  She wanted to make absolutely certain that her baby was safe from the world.

Cindy’s cousin Jeannie lives in New York.  She worked at the World Trade Center.  She was supposed to be there that morning — but something went “wrong” at home, so she decided to work from home that day.  Never has something so “wrong” been so right.

My prayers are still with all of those that lost loved ones.  My prayers are still with all of the countries affected.  There were so many innocent lives lost that day because of a bunch of crazy people that are burning in Hell right now.  My prayers are still with our leaders, our country, all of us.

September 11, 2001 is a day when the world became a much more dangerous place.  Gone were the days of playing outside during the summer vacation.  Gone were the days when you could not lock your door.  Gone was the innocence of our children.

Where were you on September 11, 2001?  What do you remember about that day?

May God have Mercy on all of us, and on all of those that lost their lives that day.