We cannot forget

Today is the sixth anniversary of 911. A day that we can never forget. Each and every person you talk with can give you specific memories of that day. The absolute lonely terror that each and every American felt right down to their bones.

Personally I was going through a very trying time in my life. My husband and I had just separated and filed for divorce two months prior. I was already terrified for myself and my family and how we would make it. I knew I had made the best decision for all of us at the time, but September 11, 2001 shook the very foundation of everything I believed to be true. On that evening I held my kids very near and dear to me. My estranged husband called and talked to each of us that evening to make sure we were all right. For that one night, we called truce and genuinely cared about our family again. We even discussed if divorce was the best option for us at that time. We both did a lot of soul searching and we did determine that a divorce was the best thing for each member of our family. But we realized there was no need to be so nasty for awhile at least.

Each year since I have sat quietly and recounted the events of that day. Every year I still shed tears for the changes that came to be in the life of each and every American. Today however, was the most difficult anniversary of 911 I have happened across in these last six years. This morning as I arrived at work the security guard was lowering the flag to half mast and as I walked into the front lobby there was a sort of hushed gloom inside that I had not been prepared for. You see, we arrived to work today to find that a co-worker of ours had lost her son in Iraq just yesterday. Last week she was overflowing with joy as she told us how excited she was because her son was coming home in less than two weeks. Less than two weeks to go and he paid the ultimate price for all of us, so that we may enjoy our freedom. Nine American soldiers were killed yesterday and one of them was from Warsaw. It just laid the reality of all of this a little heavier on our hearts today. I arrived at work aggravated at my kids' behavior over the last 24 hours, but when I arrived home tonight, I hugged and kissed each of them and was so very thankful to have them near me.

We cannot forget.