I can still remember that awful day, the day America was attacked and shaken to her very foundations. I was at work, a drive-thru cashier at a McDonald's restaurant. The day started out as usual; all of the regular customers coming through on their way to work to get their morning cup of coffee or breakfast. Everyone greeted me cheerfully and I responded in kind...we had a good rapport, the customers and I.
But it was not long after my day began that the mood of the customers began to change. Instead of the usual cheery chit-chat, I began to hear horrible stories; someone had set off a bomb at the World Trade Center, a fire had started on the upper floors of one of the twin towers, a plane had fired a missile into it. No one was sure at first what had happened.
But as the morning wore on the story came out. Two American passenger jets had been hijacked, their pilots forced to crash their planes into the twin towers...first one tower was hit, and a few minutes later the other. And then the news of a third hijacking, and a fourth. One plane was forced to crash into the Pentagon, and the other missed it's intended mark and crashed into a field. So many innocent people dying...it was almost beyond belief!
By mid-morning, business at the restaurant had dropped to nearly nothing, so the manager let me go home, where I watched the horrible stories unfold. I watched as the towers fell, burying hundreds of people beneath the debris. I watched as people helped those who had managed to get out of the buildings before they collapsed, many of them injured, all in a state of shock.
I remember praying for the people who had not gotten out, and for their families. But most of all I remember asking "Why?" I don't know if this will ever be answered in a way we can understand.
But I do know that I will always remember.
BACK
|
|
|
