For the first time, I saw a 9/11 Memorial. Not on TV from several hundred miles away, but right in front of me. On Saturday, I stood on the banks of the Hudson River and looked straight at the New York City skyline. I saw the Empire State Building. And I saw something else. The empty spot where the World Trade Center towers once stood.
Aunt Nub, who authors the journal Running on Empty, is my J-land and real life friend. She took my son and I down to this memorial in Irvington, NY. She showed us the Tappanzee Bridge. She pointed out a lighthouse in the other direction. Then she walked us over to a spot and said look, in the distance. That's where we saw them fall. This is where we stood. The dust and smoke reached all the way across the river to where we are standing now.
When she and her husband saw on TV that a plane had hit the first tower, they drove down to this small park near the Tappanzee and watched. Her husband brought binoculars. She said there were 8 or 9 other people there that morning, all strangers, but all hugging one another and crying together. I can't even imagine. I guess I didn't say much, but I sure was feeling alot. I still am.
I will let these photos speak for themselves. I know the NYC skyline one is not a good photo, (it was starting to rain a bit) but you can see what I saw on Saturday. What Aunt Nub and her husband saw on 9/11/01. They both have tattoos that mark that date.
On the small granite towers, there are rocks, pebbles, beads and pennies. Little tokens that show that people have come by. I took out a penny and Beau and I placed it on top of one of the towers, the one on the left. Right in the center. I guess I felt we should leave a little bit of ourselves there, too.
*Edit: I forgot, now that Aunt Nub just mentioned it in her comment...Beau hugged those granite towers, each one of them. He gave them the sweetest embrace. How could I have forgotten that?? Thanks, my dear, for the reminder.
7 comments:
Great entry, Phin.... very sad, huh?
Nancy
http://journals.aol.com/nhd106/Nancyluvspix/entries/2006/08/20/happy-happy-3/1255
Just the pictures made me cry. It is still so fresh in my mind and breaks my heart every single time I see anything about it. I am glad you were able to go and witness the memorials and leave a piece of yourself there.
Hugs and love,
Lisa
{{{{{{Phinney}}}}}}
What a beautiful entry!
I'm so moved by it & can feel all the old feelings from that fateful day again, I'm crying & can't think of anything else to write at the moment.
Thank you for letting me share that spot with you & Beau. It was very sweet what Beau did & that you both left that penny.
Love ya,
~~Aunt Nub~~
Very beautiful entry...and the pictures speak for themselves...a day no one will forget.
*hugs*
Thank you for sharing these. It does touch the very soul of me and I know if I was standing at that spot it would make me sob ... very similar to the way one feels when standing at 'the wall' (Vietnam Vet Memorial).
I will never forget 9/11. It hit me hard! I was on the phone with a client in NY immediately after the 1st plane struck. I worked across the street from a mall that was predominantly owned by middle eastern businessmen/women and there was A LOT of talk about malls being hit. On 9/12 I walked across the street to get lunch and there was a man in an American Airlines uniform and that was the first time I ever feared someone just because of their apparent alignment with that part of the world, it was also the first time I realized the businesses were not owned by your garden variety 'american'.
That weekend I drove past the Pentagon and the smell was horrible ... it was an awful sight. A lady that I worked with at the time, her son was called up to assist in the clean up and I know the things he had to deal with and how deeply it affected him.
I'm grateful to see that the townspeople at the place that memorial stands felt the need to let their voices stand tall in memory to all that happened that day; it would have been the most beautiful day . . . I can never forget it, and every time we get a day like that I remember that tragedy. We've had many days like that lately and the soul still mourns.
Your photos are Very touching.
Thanks for sharing the pics.
Shadie
Very special entry. Powerful pictures. I want to visit myself someday. With the date coming up on 9/11 you can't help but remember. I can't believe there are movies out about the day. It seems like it just happened. A movie can't have been made already, right? But then you realize it's been five years. Does not seem possible or real. And you wonder, has it changed anything? Has the world changed because of it? For better or worse? Sad.
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