September 11, 2001 — I Will Never Forget
Twenty-five years later, I can still remember exactly how it felt to walk through my front door that morning.
I had just gotten off my shift as a respiratory therapist at Prattville Baptist Hospital. As I always did when I came home, I turned on the morning news before going to bed.
What I saw on that television screen didn't seem real.
At first, I honestly thought I was watching some kind of cruel joke. Surely this couldn't be happening in America. Not here. Not to us.
Then reality began to sink in.
It was real.
And in that moment, the world I thought I knew changed forever.
I remember my stomach sinking as I watched the horror unfold. I remember the fear that washed over me as a mother. My first thought was my children. I immediately went to pick them up from school because I was terrified.
I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know if we were at war. I didn't know what was coming next. I only knew that the country I had always believed was safe had suddenly become frighteningly vulnerable.
I watched the events continue to unfold on my television throughout the day, and every new image seemed more horrifying than the one before it.
The loss of life was unimaginable.
As a respiratory therapist, I understood perhaps a little differently than some just how precious every breath is. But that day, the numbers weren't just numbers. They were mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, friends, coworkers, firefighters, police officers, paramedics, and complete strangers who had lives, families, dreams, and people waiting for them to come home.
So many never did.
September 11 changed the way I looked at our country. It changed the way I looked at safety. It changed the way I looked at the world.
But it also showed us something else.
It showed us courage.
It showed us ordinary people running toward danger when everyone else was trying to escape it. It showed us people helping strangers, comforting one another, and standing together in the face of unimaginable grief.
Twenty-five years later, I still remember the fear.
I still remember the heartbreak.
I still remember walking through my door, turning on the television, and realizing that America had changed forever.
And I will always remember the lives that were lost.
We remember.
We honor.
We mourn.
We will never forget.
🇺🇸 September 11, 2001 — Never Forget.