Remember

I stood in the waiting room at the lab where I worked watching the news's report on the North Tower being hit. At the time no one seemed to know what hit the tower. Some were saying a small plane. As I continued to watch the North Tower burning, I could not believe what I was seeing, a plane crashing into the South Tower. By that point there were several of us standing in shock just watching the towers burn. It was Joe's first day at Temple and I tried desperately to contact him but the phone lines were overwhelmed. I could not get a hold of anyone and watched as they evacuated the city in Philadelphia. Driving home that day seemed so eerie. 95 had no traffic and it was so quiet except for the fighter jets that flew up and down the area. I was unsure what to do so I stopped at Sam's club and loaded up on supplies. Are we at war? My grandson Shaun was just born a month earlier and I remember calling my son to make sure they were alright.

As the days went on and our country began fighting back, my youngest son paced back and forth then informed me and his father he was joining the military. He joined the Navy. I remember that cold early morning hour when he was picked up outside the house. I cried as I said "goodbye" and after he left I placed a statue of the Blessed Mother on my kitchen window. We all flew to the Great Lakes and watched him graduate. When we left for the airport to fly home, I cried because I was leaving my baby and I knew we were at war. That spring I planted a Victory Garden on the side of the house. It was the first garden I ever planted. It was the first time I realized that by digging my hands in dirt in order to create something beautiful was a great way to relieve stress. Joe was sent to Florida then Texas and then to Norfolk on the carrier Theodore Roosevelt. They would go out to sea for months at a time with no contact. His carrier went out to the Mediterranean Sea pass the Strait of Gibraltar and planted itself on the coast of the Middle East. Joe received a medal for joining the military during war time. He followed in the foot steps of my brother, my father and all the ancestors dating back to the Civil War. Today marks the 10th anniversary of a horror that changed the world. God Bless America.