9/11

Yes, like all of you, I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news of a plane crashing into one of the towers at the World Trade Center.

I was teaching my morning Reading class of 14 high school students when a colleague called my room phone. “Do you have your tv on?” she asked. I didn’t. We were pretty much told that our class televisions were for instruction only. I never had it on for anything else. “A plane hit one of the towers at the World Trade Center in New York City,” she said frantically. “Put on your tv.”

I did. Just in time to see the second plane hit. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I turned to look at my class. I have never seen such fear, such horror, such shock in the eyes of those young men and women. I had never in my career not known what to do. I had been teaching for decades… and I had been confronted with many, many scenarios. But nothing like this. I reached instinctively to turn off the television. To save them from this horror. This new world happening before our eyes.

They screamed, “NO!” Like most of us, they had to watch. One girl asked, through fearful tears, “Mrs. Couto, doesn’t your daughter live in New York City?” I explained that she and her husband had just moved back to Rhode Island in June. She just sobbed at the thought of almost knowing someone who lived and worked there. For me, it was a relief that is unexplainable… but I knew so many of Audrey’s friends who lived and worked there. Bankers. Lawyers. Chefs. Designers. Cabbies. Actors. And many, many more. Friends who had just attended her wedding in June. Friends who had been in Providence for the wedding of a friend just the previous weekend.

The thoughts became tangled. Then I heard the news of the Pentagon. My brother and sister-in-law work for the federal government. I panicked. I called. No answer. No voices at home. At work. On their cell phones. I called my mom. I tried to be calm. She was so speechless that it frightened me.

Calls began pouring into my cell phone. Calls from friends confirming that Audrey and Matthew were, in fact, out of the city on that horrible morning.

I remember thinking of all this while trying to calm my students, who wanted to run from my room, the school… home to the safety of their parents and homes.

I wanted to run home to my family. My children. I called them. We cried.

My brother did call me later that day. Our worst fears were realized when two of Audrey’s friends were among the missing. And our country, our lives, our very existence will never be the same.

Today, I honor those who perished. I honor those who risked their lives to save others. I honor our country and her strength and resolve.

9/11. No longer a number, but a memory etched and engraved.

Forever.

About Audrey

Audrey McClelland has been a digital influencer since 2005. She’s a mom of 5 and shares tips on her three favorite things: parenting, fashion and beauty. She’s also a Contemporary Romance Author.

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4 Comments

  1. 9.11.08

    Wow, I didn’t know anyone who may have been in harms way that day. I can’t imagine what was going thru your mind . I can remember sitting at my desk at work while everyone around me was running to the conference room to turn on the t.v. after hearing about it. I was frozen in my chair and all I could do was pray. As I was driving in to work this morning, the radio station was having a moment of silence in honor of 9/11 and I felt chills as I looked to the heavens as I remembered. You are right, our country will never be the same. Great post.

  2. 9.12.08
    Erin said:

    I cannot imagine what it must’ve felt like to be teaching that day, trying to calm your students, while also trying to calm yourself. I am sure you did a wonderful job of it, but it must’ve been difficult.
    My husband is a teacher, and I remember how upset he was because his school cut off the TV, internet, everything, and wouldn’t let them talk to the kids (he teaches high school). We live near Chicago, so while we were out of harm’s way of NYC, he had students who were panicked because their parents worked in the Sears Tower.

  3. 9.12.08
    Mallory said:

    First of all, Erin – I did not know that there were actually schools that did not allow the students and faculty to watch or talk about it on that day. I would have been very upset, even now, if my school had done that.

    I was in high school at the time and I was in my journalism class, which I was so thankful to be in at the time because then we had more of chance to get to see all the news then some of the other classes. Obviously, being into journalism, I was very into the news and wanted to know every detail about what was going on. I can remember this day so clearly (which is rare for me because I don’t have much of a memory). That shows you how big of an impact this day made.

    I thought it was hard being a student during that time but I can’t even imagine being a teacher. It sounds like you were so great though. 🙂

  4. 9.13.08
    Bernadette said:

    I will never forget that day as we went out for our daily coffee. The sky was so clear and blue as we both looked at each other and realized that the world in fact had stood still in silence. There was no traffic in the sky as well as on the road. People were in shock as they watched the horror of 9/11.

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