Residents Remember 9/11

By Eliza Hallabeck

For the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, The Newtown Bee solicited residents to share their memories and what they took away from the event with the paper and the Newtown community.

Multiple residents responded through an online survey, sharing their experiences from that day.

“It was a beautiful, perfect morning,” wrote Katie Kent. “Blue, blue, skies. I had just dropped my son off at Wesley Learning Center for kindergarten. I remember getting cut off by a semi on my way back to Exit 9 and overreacting to that (later realizing how truly insignificant it was).”

Ms Kent said she heard the news on the radio, but figured a small two-seat plane had gotten in trouble in a “terrible, terrible accident.”

She turned on the Today Show immediately following the news, and saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center.

“I did a lot of crying that day and in the weeks to come,” Ms Kent continued.

She was glued to the television throughout that day as the events went from bad to horrific. Ms Kent said she was truly scared for the first time in her life.

“I love [New York City], ever since I was a small kid in upstate [New York], and I attended college there. This was my city, and it had been attacked,” she wrote. “I was numb, worried for my children. Couldn’t wait for them to come home. Worried about neighbors stranded by business travel. Hoped for good news. Five friends gathered here to watch TV together. We opened wine by 10 am to take the edge off. Waiting for good news that would never come that day, and wondering how widespread this would go.”

She said while New York residents are resilient, the horrible event brought out the best in them.

“I returned to [New York] for business within a few days,” Ms Kent remembered. “[New Yorkers] needed to talk about this and tell their story so I listened. I remember the somber memorials of ‘missing person’ throughout the city and the new ‘reality’ of armed National Guardsmen in and around Grand Central Station.”

Ms Kent also said she misses the skyline that was, and remembers driving to New Jersey the week following the attack. Smoke was still rising from where the Twin Towers had been.

“I read the New York Times’s profiles everyday of the victims. I read almost everyone of them,” Ms Kent said. “I felt it was my duty. I think of that day so often, worry that it could happen again. I think of the people on the planes and in the towers, and their families. But we have to live our lives as we were meant to or ‘the terrorists’ win. We visit NYC often and show it off to visitors as ‘the jewel’ it is to our family.”

One resident, who did not supply a name on the survey, said she was on a business trip in Chicago when a stranger came bursting into the business meeting sharing the news the first tower had been hit.

“We all went to the lobby to watch the news and saw the second tower get hit,” the survey responder said. “It was like watching a movie, so unreal. I tried to call home to check on my boys who were then 3 and 6 and with a nanny. My husband was at work in Greenwich and ready to leave on a business trip the next day. Business as usual!”

The responder remembered Sandy Hook School had been closed coincidently on that day due to power being out.

“I was panicked for most of the day between lack of cell service and [my family] not being around. The next morning a group of us from Detroit, New York and Connecticut started the long drive home. At every rest stop there were other people crisscross crossing the country trying to get home.”

At one rest stop the responder remembers meeting a group traveling from Florida to Canada to be reunited with family.

“They were not even sure they would be allowed to cross the border. When we finally got back to Connecticut we had to drive past Sandy Hook to Bradley Airport where our cars were,” the responder said. “The airport security had towed a number of cars away from the terminal so we had to do a bit of searching to get each of us to our cars. I drove directly back to Sandy Hook School and took my kids out of class to hug them and bring them home. That night in bed, listening to the story from the owner of the business that lost all their employees I finally lost it and cried and cried.”

One responder, who responded simply as Sarah, said she was attending college at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven on that day. She was walking home from class wondering why there were no cars in the road, why there were so few students attending class.

“I found out when I walked through my apartment door. My roommate was panicking! I was shocked and nervous since I have never experienced this before,” Sarah wrote.

Reverence

Andrea von Amelunxen is a first grade teacher in Ridgefield, and on September 11, 2001, her husband messaged her on her laptop with the news that one of the towers had been hit by a plane.

“Knowing some of my students have family who work in the city, I snuck glimpses on my laptop. Stunned, as the kids busily worked, I walked to my classroom door and looked out into the hall,” Ms von Amelunxen said. “I found that the majority of us were there looking to see another adult’s face who knew what was going on. Whispers of, ‘Did you hear?’ and ‘Anyone you know in the city today?’ echoed up and down the hall. This was a long day for us as we pretended to be bright and cheerful while thinking that some of these children could be facing tragedy.”

Ms von Amelunxen said the day labored on as she and her fellow teachers snuck glimpses on their laptops. The door to the staff room at the school was closed, shielding students from the fear in the teachers’ voices as they supported one another.

“We volunteered to ride on the buses so that each child would not be facing an empty house. I climbed in and out of the bus many times to knock on doors to make sure that family was home before I would permit a child off the bus,” wrote Ms von Amelunxen. “One parent, when she answered the door, looked surprised to see me. ‘Oh! What are you doing here?’ ‘Just making sure that everyone has a home to go to tonight,’ I replied. Fortunately, all of our students did. Earlier in the day many of us had gone to our principal to offer our homes to any child who needed somewhere to stay. Fortunately, none of our students needed to take us up on our offer.”

One of Ms von Amelunxen’s students lost her uncle that day. For many days following the event she would sit on her teacher’s lap to have her fear and sadness comforted away.

“On Thanksgiving Day, after seeing the Macy’s parade we hopped back on the subway and planned our route to Ground Zero,” Ms von Amelunxen said. “Having grown up in Little Neck, NY, in Queens, I needed to see it. We came up out of the subway into a ghost town. We were able to walk right down the middle of the street. Nervously, we joke how this was like some old black and white B movie while ash gently flaked on our coats. We approached the sight and saw that police barricades and fence blinds surrounded the area. We looked closer and noticed a small crowd of people ducking under the barricade and lining up to peek through an area in the fence blind that had been torn. We joined the line. The only word to describe the mood was ‘reverent.’ We all waited patiently. Many of us had our heads bowed and hands folded. We didn’t speak. A holy church like silence engulfed us all. We each stepped up to the fence, stood on a bit of wood that provided a step and looked. It was still smoking... still burning. We each watched and took our turn while being conscious of the line behind us. A police officer came up....’ ‘HEY! Everyone back away...no one is allowed to behind the barrier! Come on....back it up!’ A gentlemen’s voice floated from the line and addressed the officer. ‘No. Don’t you understand? This is ours. We need to see this. We have a right to see this.’ His quiet voice filled the space between the skyscrapers. The officer, now joined by another, said nothing but just dipped his head in a quiet gesture and let the line continue.”

Kathleen Holick submitted her poem called “Light One Candle.”

“One candle, for those America has lost,” Ms Holick wrote. “It was their lives, that it had cost. A tragic beginning, of a September morn’. That was the day, a strong unity was born. We gather together, our hearts in sorrow. Our memories are with us, today and tomorrow. Why did so many have to lose their lives? They were our friends, our children, husbands and wives. There is a solemnness in the air today. Today our hands over our hearts we lay. Together we stand in thoughts and prayer. It is felt the world over, with hearts everywhere. We reflect upon that time in day. Each and every American, does it in their own way. It was a destruction that the evil had sought. Instead it was our hearts and camaraderie they caught. Today and forever we stand hand in hand. Today through our love we defend our land. Light one candle it is a simple gift. I hope and pray ALL of America is lit. In silence together, we will reflect. In heart and soul, we will Never Forget! God Bless all who have lost someone on that day!”