September 11, I was at work when the world crashed down around me. I am a Pharmacy Technician in a leading pharmacy chain. I had just come in from my break. I remember hearing everyone whispering. I remember no one would tell me what was going on. I walked back to the Pharmacy and the first thing I heard was.. We have just recieved news that there has been another crash. I wondered what in the world was going on.

I asked the Pharmacist I was working with what was going on. All he could do was look at me with an expression of awe on his face and point at the radio which, at this point I had yet to hear turned on while I was there. I remember the fear I felt, when I heard New York Cities Twin Towers had been hit, not once but 2 times with 2 separate planes. All I could think of was how close we were to New York City. We live in a small community outside of New York. A short 4 hour drive to Manhattan from my work.

All I wanted to do was grab my keys and go take my 4 year old daughter to a bomb shelter and hide. I was so scared. Scared that I could lose my daughter and mother and father and sisters. No one seemed to know when and if there would be more attacks. I spent the entire day in front of the radio. The first couple of hours were the hardest, I remember thinking of those poor people who had just started what they thought was a normal work day, only to die a horrible death. I called my sister right away. See, she lives and works in Conneticut right outside of New York. I was so worried about her but it was so hard to get through to her.

I cried for a long time, not for me but for the families who I knew had lost loved ones. I might not have had family there, I might not have had any friends currently in the City. But, their loss was mine. Just as I knew if it were me, My loss would be theirs.

That’s how I spent September 11th, looking from the side, like a side view mirror. Not there but feeling it just the same.

For all of the families who had loved ones die or be injured September 11th, just know the people who saw it from the side cried for your families and your losses too. Know at least one of us did. For that day will be remembered as the day the world grieved as one. The day time stood still, and the day that changed the world’s lives, individually and as one.