Heya.

I was nearly five years old that day. My parents had left for work at a local downtown office already that morning in order to pay the bills. I had woken up with a bad head cold and I stayed at home. My grandmother kept me sane. We were both in the living room with the house telly turned on but kept low in the background. She was watching the morning news instead. Good luck. They were at a work meeting.

I was in preschool on the day of the attacks in question here. For a very long time afterwards I refused to board any planes out of fear of dying in a bad crash. It got so bad I only went on foot, on my bike or in a car instead for a few years. Seriously I could not cope with it for a few years. However I went back to school on Thursday morning later that week after the events. My parents insisted I continue my formal education amid the fear, grief and uncertainty. After all these years I’m happy I didn’t leave.

I was trying to sleep. But I could not doze off. I gave up trying to have a nap. All of a sudden I looked at the pictures and news reports of what was going on in North America. My grandmother did the same thing. And no it was not happy world news at all. At some point I had my lunch and so did she. Far from it so she immediately rang both of my parents to tell them. They came back home around four thirty after work.

We had a quick dinner at six and went off to bed. She then instantly hugged both of them at dinner. By late afternoon of the following day we all knew a lot more about what was happening. Numbers were confirmed of who had perished in the towers and aboard the four flights. That was bad. Yet things were only about to be worse for most folks,

More news filtered in. It was then that the entire sad reality kicked in for us as a family too. Questions were answered or ignored. Even I knew a little. The next morning we lit a candle and said prayers for the families of the victims of the attacks. My parents read a article about the attacks during that week. They initially didn’t tell me anything. They were focused on being a mom and dad in a changed society. They went out on Friday morning to buy me some ice cream and discovered a new world.

I still remember one Friday evening later that year in December when we were out at a downtown Chinese restaurant. It was Xmas time but the whole world had changed.  I didn’t really understand the full impact of it until one evening four years later. I was at dinner having returned from a half day of lessons at a local school. I had previously finished my homework that morning. So we were all sat at the table chatting and eating our food. Life goes on, it has to. No matter what.