In Remembrance

I’ll never forget 9/11. I was in an airplane, flying back to Boston from my honeymoon in Italy when the captain told us there were terrorist attacks in the US and the plane had to turn around and go back. “The US is no longer accepting airplanes.”

It took another 3-4 hours of confusion before we finally found an English-language TV station. It was the first time we were seeing images, and all we saw was rubble.

We ended up spending three nights in Belgium before finally catching a flight back to Canada, where we (together with a group of other New England folks stuck on the same flight) drove 6+ long hours back into our respective states. It turned out later that the airport in Boston would be closed for much, much longer. Though it seemed crazy at the time, flying into Montreal was the right decision.

I’ll never forget that feeling of uncertainty, fear, and helplessness. We prayed a lot during that time.

I’ve posted some photos I took from my visit to Washington DC last year. The Newseum has an excellent exhibit on 9/11, including haunting photos taken by Bill Biggart, a freelance photographer whose body and camera – full of photos from that fateful day – were found in the rubble. I would highly recommend seeing this exhibit.