I'll Never Forget, will you?

Where were you 8 years ago today? Doing something mundane... reading the newspaper, getting kids off to school, washing the dishes? I was going to work. I was 8 months pregnant and happy that I had an OB/GYN appointment that afternoon (I wanted that baby OUT!). By the time I got to work everything had changed, everything stopped. For hours we huddled around a very small television and watched those towers collapse, watched a city change, watched our world change.

There are two things I will never forget about that day. The first is how the world became smaller. I started receiving emails from around the world; an outpouring of grief came in each one of those messages. No one could believe the events that unfolded that horrible September day. The second is how the Portsmouth Naval Hospital became an armed fortress. My house is across the street from the hospital and 1/2 block from the back gate. Before 9/11 Matt and I would ride our bikes along the waterfront at the hospital. After 9/11 it was a closed Military Base . When I came home there were tanks, concrete blockades and numerous Marines armed with machine guns at each gate. I tried not to watch the endless television shows, it was too upsetting and my pregnant emotions couldn't handle it. On the first anniversary I allowed myself to watch, allowed myself to grieve. I wrote a letter to my children and told them how I felt on that day. I let my 7 year old read it yesterday, he asked if he could take it to school and read it to his class.

We live in a military town. Everyone I know has either served or is related to someone who has. My kids know the people in the uniforms are the good guys, lets just hope they never have to see the bad guys.

Never Forget September 11, 2001