falling

Trapped in NYC, luckily someone she knew, a nice, young buyer from the small world of fashion in which she worked, was kind enough to offer her a place to sleep.  After all, there was a second bed in his hotel room.   She located and purchased a pair pantyhose at a quickie mart.  In the dimly lit, unusually still city night,  she eventually came upon a restaurant with open doors.  All they had to offer was one meal.   They served spaghetti with tomato sauce to everyone.  The TV was on, quiet talk ensued, shock marred the patrons solum faces.  When our President appeared and spoke on the news, all of New York fell silent.  
This was my first account, the true tale of my very close friend who survived the World Trade Center attack on September 11th years ago.

"Did that really happen Mom?"

What do I say to them?   Do I tell my children who ask me to explain what I know about the catastrophe of 9/11, which happened only miles from where I lived most of my life, "Heck no, the Wickersham brother's took the speck from Horton and held it over the boiling pot, threatening to drop it in, but the people of Whoville, called out louder, "We are here, We are here!".

It really happened.
I'm really telling the truth; the whole, sad, unreal, fantastical truth.

When it happened, I remember how I found out, precisely what time it was and how I felt and what exactly I did I after I learned about it, but it wasn't until I read notes from the folks I knew who survived it and how heroically they behaved, how those who were less fortunate had fallen and how their families were left to pick up the shards of what remained and how they dealt with the fragments of their once intact lives, that it became real to me.

Growing up outside of New York City, one of the hardest things I faced in my youth was choosing the Yankee's over the Mets and Giants over the Jets.  Sneaking into Discotheques long before I was legal drinking age and becoming a willing slave to fashion were natural side effects from living too close to the center of the world.  Never did I imagine it would all come crashing down.   Oh how the mighty had fallen.

I love New York and there's no place like it...
(that slogan from the 80's meant to remind people to visit the Big Apple, still rings true for me today.)

In memory of 9/11 and of those I knew and loved or liked and some of whom I kissed.

For you - "Lets roll"...  Let us roll forward for you.