Shaun Groves
Bebo‘s road manager pulled the curtain back on my bunk. I shuffled bleary-eyed to the front lounge of the tour bus.
I sat on the floor, staring up at the television mounted on the wall. Smoke billowed from a building and Bebo brought me up to speed. A rocket? A plane? Probably a plane.
Something had smashed into the tower.
Our tour bus was parked outside a theatre in Wichita Falls, Texas.
Katy was fifteen, sitting on the couch in pajamas, her hand across her mouth, peaking over her knees at the screen. She and I, Bebo and his band and crew said very little. We just watched.
I called Becky back home in Nashville. She sat quietly with the receiver to her ear, watching CNN along with me. Then the second tower was struck.
Definitely a plane.
Becky hung up to call her little sister, Kathy, who worked in Manhattan. She called me back a few minutes later. “I couldn’t get through.”
How will we get through?
Should I leave the tour and head to New York to find Kathy? To do something?
Won’t they cancel the tour?
Will there be more attacks?
Are we going to war?
Hours later, Katy strummed her guitar, writing a song in her green room. Bebo and his band sound checked. I hung up the phone – Kathy was OK – and wrote in my journal…
Three years later those lines mingled with the words of Jesus in Matthew 5 and became a memorial to all we lost on 9/11, in the war that followed…to all we’ve lost since the Garden.
“Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.”
Mourning their own brokenness. Weeping over the brokenness of the world. Singing the melody that spilled from Eden and out across humanity.
Comforted by the Man of Sorrows who made a way to end our sad song.
Where were you on 9/11?
Kris says:
I remember all too well where I was on 9/11/2001… I was on my way alone to check into the hospital for an emergency c-section. I had an OB appointment that morning and was told I was going to deliver our first baby a month early. I was unable to reach my husband or family because all the phone lines were down in the DC/Northern VA area. It seemed like forever that I laid on a stretcher in a make-shift room listening to the news overhead. I don’t think I have ever been more afraid or felt more alone than I did at that time. I wanted so badly to run out of there and keep my son safely inside – free from the evil of those few men. Despite the crazy traffic my husband was able to get to the hospital and we were able to wait until the wee hours of 9/12. I was changed that day for sure.
Sarah aka MainlineMom says:
I was at work in Pennsylvania, less than a couple hours from NYC. I had colleagues on planes and about to get on planes. I had been in NYC the week before. After the second plane hit we turned on the only tv in our office and watched…literally live…as the Pentagon was hit. Cell phone signals were totally jammed so I couldn’t reach my friend at the Baltimore airport. Our colleagues on the flight to our factory in Thailand were re-routed to Pittsburgh. Somehow everyone managed to rent cars with strangers and drive home. We spent a very long lunch at a local bar watching a big screen in silence. I was so happy to go home to my husband that night, where we just held each other and cried all night.
Alexis says:
I was at work at the sheriff’s office as a computer programmer. I was looking for my co-worker who I thought was off goofing off somewhere, and I was annoyed to find her in someone else’s office messing with the tv with what looked like some action/attack movie. I mean honestly. I questioned her as she and someone elser fumbled with the TV trying to get the picture clear. I don’t even remember what they said to me, just that I ran back to our office, and turned on my boss’s TV with my other co-worker, as we watched live in confusion as the second tower was hit. Our boss was on vacation and the 4 of us spent the day in his office watching the news in horror, running back to our desks every now and then to call relatives, send emails, and to do a little work that couldn’t wait until the next day, the next week, etc. I personally was terrified that we, in a law enforcement building, were no longer safe and our building would be bombed… or something. Finally that afternoon I got in touch with my friend’s parents in NY State. My friend lived in Manhattan and managed to sleep through the initial attack and made his way down to ground zero that afternoon, and spent the week helping hand out food and supplies.
Elaine says:
I was in bed when my husband called (being in California it was still early) to tell me to turn on the television. I had a rough night with our 10 month and she was still sleeping. It didn’t matter. I had to hold her. I watched her and the television almost simultaneously. What kind of world will she grow up in? Will she meet people in her life that grew up without a mom, dad, grandpa, etc? I cried. I prayed.
Southern Gal says:
I was five month pregnant with my third child and homeschooling my other two when my mom called and told me to turn on the Today Show. The rest of the day my 12-year-old daughter, 10-year-old (in two days) son, and I sat and watched the second plane hit the tower. There was so much fear and pain pouring out on the screen. It was just so hard to believe.
Jan J. says:
Beautiful song. I got up mid afternoon – worked the night shift from home as a medical transcriptionist. I flipped on the VCR, which was set to tape a craft show on HGTV. The TV screen was black and it said something like “Due to today’s tragedy, we have cancelled programming for the day.” I could not imagine what was going on but my heart began beating faster. I switched to CNN in time to see a replay of the second plane hit the tower. It was so surreal. My little daughter, my precious baby I adopted from China as a single mother, got up and I could not let her see what was going on but I so wanted to be riveted to it. It was a long day of trying to get her to play alone in her room for bits of time while I ran in and tried to learn more. Such a sad sad day that still makes my heart heavy in an instant.
Sara McNutt says:
I was a freshman in college, two weeks into being an adult.
I wrote about it here.
http://saramcnutt.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-911-commemoration.html
Jessica says:
Argh, I wasn’t going to write or say anything about 9/11 today, but I think you’ve just inspired me. Darn you, Shaun Groves!
Melissa Jones says:
I worked in SW DC (a few miles from the Pentagon) at the time, but was much closer to home for a meeting that exquisitely beautiful morning. Right before I left for my meeting, a friend from my office IMed me to say that a plane had hit the WTC. I tried to get on CNN to see what was going on, but the site was down. I went to my meeting thinking it was an accident and a Cessna had hit the building. At the end of the meeting, we were told that the facility would be closing at 1:30 for security purposes. I called my office and was told not to bother trying to get in to town as the Federal Government had just shut down, so I went home and watched TV. At one point, my dog and I walked to the post office to buy stamps and mail a letter. The juxtaposition of the beauty of the day with the horror of the day is still hard to reconcile in my mind.
Two nights later, I was watching the news and saw an interview with the head of the Salvation Army in Northern VA where they were collecting supplies for the emergency personnel working at the Pentagon. I drove over there and spent the night helping organize all the donations that had been dropped off, then went in to work the next morning, driving past the still smoking Pentagon.
I don’t remember the exact timeline, but I think the paperwork had already been submitted for me to go overseas to work. The job I picked was in the Middle East, but nowhere especially dangerous. The week before I left for training (the following March), they said that they weren’t going to put me in that job because of the situation, but to come to training and we’d find me another one (you know, something “safe”). I landed in Kuwait the first week in May, just days after “major conflict operations” finished, and in Baghdad just over two months after Baghdad fell to coalition forces. “Safe” is a relative term.
On this similarly beautiful day, 11 years later, I’m working for the place where I was meeting that day. I’m also a suburban mom of three little ones, a puppy, a cat, and some fish, plus the wife of a great guy. But that day awoke a desire in me to help. I served before then in various capacities, but that day changed my sense of urgency and my priorities.
Beth says:
We were stationed in England, my USAF husband was in Crete on a TDY. I was watching a movie with my youngest, just turned 2, and waiting to get my kids off the school bus. A flash on the screen said a plane hit the World Trade Center so I switched to SKY News. I watched as the 2nd plane hit and immediately said “terrorist attack.” A few minutes later, as news teams were still speculating about what may have happened, the plane hit the Pentagon. I walked to the bus to get my son, not knowing whether or not my brother in law, who worked at the Pentagon, was alive or not. I got my son, and had to drive to the base to get my daughters who were at a Girl Scout meeting.
Trying to enter an overseas military base is tight at anytime, but at “Threatcon Delta,” it’s almost impossible. I pulled up to a heavily armed and guarded gate only to be told I couldn’t enter. I calmly, but firmly explained to the young airman at my car window that I was definitely going to enter the base to get my children. It wasn’t an option for me (or him). He allowed me to proceed. I collected my kids and returned home; still numb, and not sure how I was going to explain this to 4 kids, aged from 11 to 2.
After explaining the best I could, their first questions were of course, “Is Uncle Jack OK,” and “is Daddy coming home tomorrow?”
I didn’t know the answer to either question. Phone lines were down. I finally sent an email to my niece who worked at the National Press building then and she said her dad was off work that day and OK. Whew! My husband was able to call that night and said he’d be home as scheduled. They’d armed the guys at their local hotel with buckets, filled with rocks, in case of attack. No joking; buckets filled with rocks.
We live in ND 11 years later and are now retired. A much different life with now 23, 20, 16 and 13 year olds and a grandson. One thing is the same though; I’ll never forget where I was that day.
Kit says:
I went to my business 101 class at Colorado Christian University that morning, only to be told to go home– class was cancelled because of an attack on the WTC. I recalled the van bombing incident there previously and figured this was similar, but when I got home my roommates and I all saw on tv that this was much different. I remember feeling so alone, because we had read “The Grapes of Wrath” in college the year before, and my parents had recently split up and my boyfriend had broken up with me. I figured the stock market would crash and I would have nobody to drive to California in a truck with me. I’d be alone as the world ended.
But the world did not end. And that boyfriend and I just celebrated 10 years of marriage together this month 😉 Last year on the 10th anniversary of this attack, we were trying to name the child I was carrying, our 4th. We settled on Rosa for a variety of reasons, but also it struck me as interesting that it reminded me of the character Rose of Sharon in Steinbeck’s book, and how that book had factored into my experience of that infamous day. I wish everyone’s story of that event had such a happy ending as mine.
Kris says:
I heard the news as I got in my car after taking a class at UWF. I called my Dad, my brother, my husband–I just wanted to hear the voices of my loved ones. The whole hour long drive home that morning i listened to A.M. Radio and the live news as it was coming in. I spent the entire day in front of the TV.
I will never forget. Both my brother and sister (military) have served in the middle east, in that war. our lives are forever altered.
RaD says:
I just heard Enough on Air 1! Yay!
rebecca says:
http://herewearejamersons.blogspot.com
Jenny says:
I was teaching a class of 5th graders in Texas. The first hour of the day they had electives. I walked into the office to check my box when our secretary told me a plane had hit the WTC. I assumed a small Cessna had hit it by accident. We quickly found out we were wrong. It was a hard day of trying to be honest with a bunch of 10 year olds, but be age appropriate with them. It was a very hard few weeks after trying to answer their questions to the best of my ability. They were fascinated with the people that choose to jump out of the buildings rather than burn. Horrible conversations about people knowing they were going to die and choosing their method. Other conversations about what some student’s ministers were saying – we brought this on ourselves because of our sins. I didn’t believe this and tried to be honest with my beliefs, but still respect these kid’s parents and the discussions they were having in their own homes. Still difficult to think about.