10 Years Later

Part of the beauty in working for an investment manager is the paid time off we get every year. 10 years ago it was a use it or lose it policy and since I never took time off, and my vacation calendar was about to rollover, I decided to take a week off.

I didn't go anywhere for my "vacation." Didn't have any big plans, except to clean up around the house. I got started early that day. Pulled out the vacuum and went to town in the living room. I noticed as I was vacuuming the light on my caller I.D. flashing. It was around 8:30 a.m., who was calling me? I didn't hear the phone ring over the vacuum. I stopped to see who it was and noticed that G (we were dating at the time) had called a couple times. Just then the phone rang again - it was my boss. She said, "Are you watching the news?" "No, what's going on?" I was clueless. She said, "The World Trade towers were hit by two airplanes and have collapsed..." I didn't grasp the magnitude of the situation immediately. All I really knew was that thousands of people went in and out of those buildings every day. This was a big deal.

I turned on the t.v. and didn't turn it off the rest of the week, or weeks, for that matter. I didn't go back to work for several days more than my "paid time off." Fear had gotten the best of me. G came over after work that night and was a mess. The firm he worked for was based in NYC, at World Trade Center. He was worried for his colleagues. We spent a lot of time watching the events unfold. Listening to the stories from the people who were there. We hoped for survivors.

10 years later we live by the cliche, we will never forget. We will never forget how evil evil really is. We will never forget the people who went to work that day and didn't go home. We will never forget their families. We will never forget those who paid the ultimate sacrifice to save the lives of others.