Remembering 9/11

Today’s story is remembering the day the world came to my town.

Gander, Newfoundland.

I was just beginning Grade 10 at the time, and lived a sheltered enough life, so I didn’t even know the Twin Towers existed until they were gone.

This Tuesday started out like any other. I got up and went to school. I went to my regular class, and when I got home for lunch, my Dad was just coming home from his Morning at his office, as he is a United Church Minister.At that time he was one of two Ministers at Fraser Road United. He sat down to the kitchen table telling mom and me and my sisters about what was going on, and that a plane had just crashed into one of the towers. I ate my lunch in quiet, not really conceiving what was taking place down in the States. My naive grade 10 mind just thought ” ok, something bad is happening, but at least its not here.”

At this time the buses were on strike, so my father had to drop me back to school after lunch, and went on his merry way. Walking into Gander Collegiate, there are 3 TVs, one in each corner of the main lobby, and they are usually on the town community channel, but today they were all tuned into the news, for obvious reasons. That was when I first started to realize something unusual was going on.

The second thing I found unusual was when I got to my theatre class, it was what everyone was talking about, and the windows in the class where shaking more than usual from airplane traffic.

Now, living in Gander Newfoundland, we would always find the windows shake, or at the very least the noise from planes over head, on a constant daily basis, you really get used to it. Not this day, it was one right after the other.

My last class, was Writing, with my home room teacher Mr. Soper. We had a half normal class, until towards the end when the Principal came on the P.A. System to explain to us the severity of what was going on, and partially what would happen next. We left school early that day, and by the time I was downstairs and closing in on the door, I remember one teacher getting distinctly frustrated and someone saying get the hell out of the school. I was freaked out by the time I got to my dads car.

I went home that afternoon and Babysat my two sisters for the next 4 days, while my parents went and did everything they could to help at the Airport and then at the Church. I spent that evening and anytime my parents weren’t home, trying to watch the news, because when they did come home, they wanted us to take a break from watching it all.

I remember one day I did get to go over to the church and help out a bit and I got to meet some very memorable people. I didn’t get to help out at the school though. In hindsight, I knew my parents needed me at home to help them with my younger siblings, so that they could go and help as many people as they possibly could in such a trying time.

I remember the following days once the planes left, and we went back to school, and I was interviewed by CBC news in my Media class along with other people.

I am proud of what my town did that day and in the days to come following one of the most horrific, tragic times in our recent history.

My main wish from all of this is that we remember, so that a tragedy like this NEVER happens again.