9/11: Ten Years Later

For people all over the world, September 11, 2001 will be a day that lives in infamy in our memory. It was a day that profoundly changed the way most of us think about life — and a day that took so many lives and shattered the hopes, hearts, and dreams of so many others.

On that Tuesday morning I had been in my office at a residential children’s facility for about an hour when the phone rang. The voice on the other end belonged to my wife, Michelle . . . yet there was a timbre in her tone that instantly conveyed the message that all was not well. Immediately my thoughts rushed to my then eight-month-old son, Jackson, who was in the house with her. But before I could ask about him, Michelle interrupted and asked, “Have you seen the news?”

“No,” I replied, puzzled. I quickly clicked onto a news website and saw ‘BREAKING NEWS’ in bright red.

“A plane has crashed into the World Trade Center,” she said, her voice shaking. “It’s bad, Garrick.”

I quickly headed to the TV room to turn on the news. Of course, finding the news wouldn’t be a problem, since it seemed to be on every channel. Within a matter of minutes, I, along with the rest of the waiting world, would soon discover that this was no accident. When the second plane hit the South Tower at three minutes past the hour, I remember my heart just sinking. Those of us gathered around stood speechless, in total disbelief of what our eyes were telling our brains.

In those moments the world as we knew it changed forever. Freedom turned to fear and anxiety to agony as the full scope of this attack on America unfolded in what seemed like slow motion. Within the hour another plane hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Reporters on the ground struggled to explain what was happening. They couldn’t quite wrap their minds around it all either.

By the time United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, I remember thinking to myself, “When will it end? What’s next?!” Read more of this post