My mother remembers cutting out her wedding gown when news came through about the assassination of JFK. For me though two more recent events left an indelible mark, the first was the death of Diana Princess of Wales and the second was September 11th 2010.
As we remember 10 years on from those terrible events, I am reminded of my visit to New York in 1993 when the Twin Towers were still standing. The pictures I have of these enormous building are a stark reminder of what has gone. They towered literally over the city skyline and it is strange to see pictures now with the empty space left behind. My story of 9/11 as it will always be known is of 2 sisters coming home from a holiday in Crete. Both had had a tough year and had had a week just relaxing and reading in the sunshine. I had driven home from Bristol and desperate to stay awake as long as possible put the afternoon news on. The first plane had already hit the one tower by then and so I watched for further news, I will never forget the live relay of the that second plane smashing into the second tower, it was like something out of a disaster movie. The news obviously kept on running and it became obvious that there was going to be a terrible outcome. It was later when live again I watched the towers both crumbling that I realised quite how many people would have lost their lives.
This week I watched an ITV documentary which followed the events and spoke to many of the key people in power that day who had to make terrible decisions and whose bravery and decision making prevented further tragedy. At the end it said than 3,000 people died in the Twin Towers from 60-70 countries. I know one of those people was my parent's friend's niece and I will be thinking of them and everyone else directly and indirectly affected by this terrible event.
Yes, it is hard to forget ... my memory is of a family friend who was meant to be on one of the planes and had her itinery changed the day before - it was a blessing because she died of cancer within a couple of years, her family had that extra time with her which was precious.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your memory Jo. I just posted about my 9/11 story on my blog. I had never written it out before, but this seemed like the year to do it. Last year was really the first year I could watch documentaries or movies about the event. Henry was very interested, so we watched them together. This year, Clara watched a few, too. I think it's good because they don't really remember anything (they were 6 and 3).
ReplyDeleteRinda
I remember watching it live, and the shock of realising thousands of people were dying as I looked on. The power of the media left me feeling very uncomfortable ... Thank-you for letting us read how it affected you and your family and friends.
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