9/11: A Mother’s Perspective
There are significant days in American history that stand out more than others. In my life, September 11, 2001 is one of those fateful days.
That Tuesday morning began as all our family’s days would, with the clock radio playing and the snooze button being pushed for those precious extra few minutes.
However, that morning I heard the radio team talking about a “building on fire” and the source of the incident wasn’t yet known. I asked my husband to turn on the television to see what was happening.
We watched together as the second airplane hit the Twin Tower in New York.
We were in shock and kept questioning each other what we were actually seeing because it just didn’t make sense. The day began to move in slow motion as my husband and I watched the towers fall to the ground.
My heart immediately broke for all the families whose lives were changed forever.
I was 5 months pregnant with our second child at the time and I worried for the wives and mothers who might also have been pregnant. I grieved not only for them but also for their children, born and unborn. As our four-year-old daughter slept in her room, I couldn’t imagine having to tell her that daddy’s plane had crashed into a building.
As personal stories from victim’s families began emerging, Lisa Beamer’s story touched me most. Maybe it was because she was also 5 months pregnant but I completely identified with her. I tried to put myself in her place and couldn’t imagine being as strong as she was in the public eye. Like me, she had young children at home and we both would ultimately deliver our babies within the first weeks of January. I wondered how any of these mothers could make it through such a devastatingly horrible time.
So for me, September 11 had the deepest and most profound effect on me as a mother. And as a wife, whose husband traveled, it made me realize that quite possibly from this point in time on I might face a similar situation. Something as easy and “normal” as air travel was now on the top of the list for dangerous activities.
I have always deeply loved my husband and children, but to see so vividly the loss we all experienced on September 11, 2001 has made life a bit more real and much more precious ever since.
Arizona PolitiChick Tina Drake is a wife and mother, who earned a degree in Communication from the University of Arizona, where her love for politics grew during college. Tina is a contributing blogger to Girlfriends at Central.
