The sky was beautiful and clear on 9/11, as anyone who was in New York that day will tell you. One of those bright September days when you can see for miles and miles. My good friend Lee, a freelance writer, was just sitting down at her computer in her Brooklyn apartment when she heard the news. A plane had flown into the one of the towers of the World Trade Center.
Was it an accident? It all seemed so vague at first and difficult to know what was happening. Then the second plane tore into the second tower. And another plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. A fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania.
Lee turned off the computer and went upstairs to the roof of her building. She lived on a hill about ten miles east of downtown Manhattan. The two towers could be seen very clearly, with clouds of smoke billowing from them.
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She imagined all the people who worked in the area and lived in Brooklyn, making their way back home. She offered her prayers for their safety and the safety of the firefighters and whoever remained stuck in the buildings. Then the unimaginable happened. The first tower collapsed. And the second tower fell.
A plume of debris erupted where the towers once stood, bits of paper from the offices rising in the updraft and drifting in the air. The paper caught the light—that extraordinary clear light on that unspeakably clear day—and glittered like silver. Lee stood there, aghast, gazing at the sparkling sky. How could we go on after something like this? How would we ever heal? The future seemed dark and terrifying.
The paper seemed to be blowing to her, catching the breeze, then tumbling to earth. One half-burnt card fell at her feet. It seemed impossible it could have traveled this far on the breeze. Still in shock, she picked it up.
It was a prayer card. A religious icon, posed in a state of devotion. Somehow it had endured the turmoil and survived intact. To Lee, it was a sign of hope. Of the healing yet to come.
Today that card is framed on Lee’s wall, and every time I see it, I remember how we made it through that horrible, devastating day, and found the faith to recover, rebuild, and live on.
MEMORABLE QUOTES FROM 9/11 SURVIVORS
