10 Years Later...

I was working in a hospital laboratory on September 11, 2001.  I had just been diagnosed with melanoma and was facing surgery in a few days... I had been told I had a 92% chance of still being alive in 8 years.  Up until that time I had been indestructible. 

I was processing blood samples in Chemistry when Annie told me what had happened in New York, and  I immediately followed her into the break-room where two other workers were huddled around the TV..  I remember the instant nausea.  I remember the inability to concentrate on my work.

Three young girls in their early twenties were working with us that day, and it amazed me how unaffected they appeared to be.  They went about their work and even laughed, I remember.

Heather, one of the three, came into the break-room to tell me something and glanced at the image on the TV screen.  I said, "You realize our world changed today?" 

 Last year I asked Heather if she remembered what I told her that morning.  Without hesitating she replied, "You said our world had changed."

I remember the moment when I felt better.  It was when I saw a picture of a young man standing on an overpass, waving a big American Flag at the cars passing below.  When asked later he said something like, "I felt I had to do something, and I didn't know what else to do." 

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