That Awful Day

By Sterry Codrington For me, 9/11 is a bad memory that I will never be able to. I remember going to school that day dreading leaving my bed, I was lucky. I had this gut feeling that I had forgotten something at home that I desperately needed that day in school; however this was a different gut feeling. I remember all the teachers and staff members were in disgust, some even couldn’t attend class, they just all sat in the hallway. I remember my mom picking me up very early; I was probably in school for about an hour and a half before she signed me out. I remember being so excited to leave school that I didn’t even ask my mom why she signed me out. “Your father didn’t want you to be in school today for some reason so I decided that were going to have a family day with your brother and sister,” my mom said. I remember never questioning what was going on at the time; I didn’t even realize the WTC was under attack until later that night when my mom sat me, my sister, and my brother down to explain to us the situation. I remember seeing my sister nearly faint when my mom talked to us about when my father called her at work. “This is basically what he said to me. ‘Listen babe I want you to go get the kids from school as soon as you can, don’t worry about missing work. We as a nation are under attack. A plane was hijacked and flown into one of the WTC buildings where Enrique works. I’ve been trying every 3 minutes to contact the family in NY but no one is answering; some of the phone lines are down. You need to make the kids understand that I have responsibility within the Army, and this attack may send me to war against whoever did this. I need you to tell the kids that I, along with their aunts, uncles, and cousins in NY are safe and always will be. I love you.’ And then he hung up,” my mom said. I remember the attack was on every news station; many other TV stations even put the news on as well. I remember missing school for two days, and then my father called again. I wasn’t able to talk to him but I remember going back to school the next day, and my mom went back to work. That day I will never forget. I’ve never experienced anything like that before where my Dad was so afraid for our lives. He thought the next targets would be either schools or Hospitals so he didn’t let my mom go to work and my sister and I go to school. It was a very scary situation. And my Uncle worked in the WTC however he was stuck in traffic that day so he never made it there. My father, who is in the Army, was stationed in Georgia at the time and he was scheduled to visit us in a few weeks. He cancelled his flight on 9/11.