911 Patriot Day

September 11, 2001, 8:46AM EST

I’ll never forget. I was in the bathroom (of all places) the morning of 911 getting ready for work. It was a beautiful bright sunny day at my lakefront condo. The sky and water were both beautiful blues.

I heard in the distance my husband yelling at me to come and look at the news. He said, “we’re under attack! The United States is under attack!” He was typically overly dramatic, so I thought, “sure, we’re under attack, right!” No rush out of the bathroom.

When I finally came out and looked at the news I saw the first tower smoking. The second hadn’t been hit yet. Shortly after thinking this might be serious, I saw the second tower get hit. Then I saw a nightmare unfolding. Specks of black on the TV screen were falling out of the buildings. People jumped to their deaths trying to escape the flames. It was horrific.

And then the Pentagon. I was in shock. The world started spinning in slow motion. It was unreal.

A few days later I saw my girlfriend Heather. I remembered that she had a trip to NYC scheduled. She reminded me that she had been scheduled to take the bar exam in one of the towers on 911. The night before she had gotten terrible anxiety and rescheduled her exam. She was so thankful God had protected her.

On September 11, 2001 2,977 people were murdered. 19 hijackers committed murder-suicide. 343 New York City Fire department and 71 law enforcement officers died trying to rescue others. More then 25,000 survived the 911 attack with injuries.