I was working for a small publisher in Beverly at the time, when one of my colleagues, known for his sense of humor, came in and said "a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center." I said, "yeah, right," and kept working. It was the kind of exaggerated story someone like him would throw out for a reaction.
He then became very serious and turned on the radio. It was no joke. Suddenly I felt numb.
It took some time for the information to settle into my brain, then I found a place to watch television, and the pictures made it all far too real. I was stunned. We closed the office, and everyone went home. As I walked home, I remembered that my close friend from college worked in the building next to the Trade Center. I had a nightmarish thought that I might never see her again, that she would die leaving her two young children and husband to sort out what happened. I started to cry.
When I got home, a friend of mine took my kindergartner after school to be with her daughter, so the little ones would be able to play together without seeing how upset the adults were. My husband came home from work. We watched as the second tower fell. It felt surreal. The magnitude of the disaster was too big.
Where was my friend, Patti? I could not reach my friend on her cell phone, so I called her husband. He hadn't been able to get her on the phone but reached her by e-mail. He knew she was safe but not where she was. As it turned out, she was one of the thousands of New Yorkers walking uptown from Wall Street, looking like the living dead. Their pictures were on the news. They shared the same shocked expressions and gray dust on their clothes.
I waited all day and into the evening wondering and praying about my friend. Would she make it home? How emotionally damaged would she be? Had she been injured? At 8 p.m. I couldn't wait any longer. I called her house. Her mother had driven there to help with the children and answered the phone. Patti had just walked in the door.
"I'm OK," she said.
"I just needed to hear your voice," I answered.
We both burst into tears.
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