[at-l] So...

[shellydhale at earthlink.net (Shelly Hale)]

The morning of September 11, 2004 I had stayed home.  Both of my youngest
daughters had been sick the night through with terrible colds and high
fevers.  After getting my eldest off on the bus to begin her day at school,
I had begun to fold laundry enjoying that unusually peaceful time of morning
while I let the youngest two sleep in a bit.

Then, the phone rang.  It was my Daddy.  He told me to turn on the TV...and
the tone of his voice made a chill run down my spine.  I asked him what was
going on, but he told me to just turn it on and see.  As I reached for the
remote on the coffee table, a dread as I had never before experienced
chilled me physically.  I realized for Daddy to call with such fear
resonating from his voice that something really terrible was happening.
With fingers of ice I almost laid the remote back down.  Did I really want
to know what was going on?

At his continued urging, I turned on the TV to see Katie Couric talking
about some kind of explosion in the WTC, when Daddy said, "Do you see it?
Do you see it?  They're bombing America!  Oh, my God! They're bombing
America!"  One of the towers had black smoke pouring from it.  As I watched,
the second plane came into view and slammed into the tower next to it.
Dumbfounded, I clutched the phone, watched as they kept rerunning that
second plane crash while zooming in for a closer look over & over, and
wondered why this was happening.  Daddy and I stayed on the phone for
several minutes not even speaking and yet needing to have that human
connection.

Realizing the implications of such events, I told Daddy I needed to call
into work.  At that time I worked for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in
Transportation.  Reluctantly, he said OK and that he'd come up and check on
my youngest two in a little bit.  But, before we rang off, he said, "I know
that I don't always tell yuns this enough, but I love you with all of my
heart."  With tears in my eyes, I told him I loved him, too.  He promised to
check on everyone else, and we hung up.

When I got a hold of my boss on the phone, he told me that everyone on the
docks had gathered in the breakroom to watch the news.  We had no idea of
what was to come, but we started working on being prepared as much as
possible.

I remember walking into my girls' bedroom a little while later and seeing
them lying peacefully asleep.   I sat down on the side of the bed and laid
my hand on my youngest's chest just feeling her breathe.  When I gently
shook her shoulder calling her name, she opened her eyes and then smiled up
at me.  There simply is nothing as beautiful as a child in all of their
innocence.  I gathered her up in my arms and hugged her close.  Holding the
baby, I went to my middle daughter and tickled her ear to wake her.  After
she crawled onto my lap, she sleepily drawled, "Good mornin', Momma."  With
their arms wrapped around me, I wondered what the rest of the day would
bring for them.  What would their tomorrows be like after this?

The rest of the day was a blur of activity of working from home and keeping
up with my daughters as well as the news.  That night, my entire family
gathered down at Mom & Dad's for supper.  As Daddy said grace, we tightly
held hands.

That day brought many changes for our family.  No, we were not directly
impacted by those events that day.  We did not lose family members, friends,
or co-workers in those towers, the Pentagon, or that field in Pennsylvania.
However, we were brought much, much closer together.  We now tell each other
every single day that we love each other no matter what else may be going
on.  When we call each other we always tell the other that we love them
before we hang up.  We have a renewed sense of patriotism and awareness of
what is going on around us as well as others that we interact with.

With all of the sadness and tragedy surrounding that day and the days since,
we must acknowledge that there are some positives that have come about for
us as a nation.  I realize that we may not all agree on certain actions or
resulting events.  However, there is a new found love of self, family,
friends, and country.  It was a wake up call that was necessary in many
ways.  Through our own arrogance we have become lax and taken many things
for granted.  Though, I find it sad...especially for myself...that it took
such events to stir us into an awakening of things that should have already
been higher on our list of priorities.


Shelly Hale

Commit to a Girl today!
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Felix" <AThiker@smithville.net>
To: "AT-list" <at-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2004 9:25 AM
Subject: [at-l] So...


> Where were you three years ago right now?
>
> -- 
> Felix J.
> ME-->GA '98
> "Your Move"
> ALT '03 KT '03
> http://Felixhikes.tripod.com/
>
>
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