Editors note: We are very honored to bring you this first hand tribute from one of our own forum members who witnessed 9/11 first hand and is sharing his story and photos for the very first time.
Remembrance….
It is 10 years. We all know what that means. For me, it is 10 years from that morning where I had to run as fast as I could to save my life. Nobody expected the towers to collapse. And when the South tower started to come down, it came down fast. It is 10 years of the nightmares, and the flashbacks. This “anniversary” as it is referred to is different though for me. Not because we are finally seeing some progress at Ground Zero. Not because Osama Bin Laden has been killed either. It is because I am finally able to open up and talk about that morning.
Twenty four hours later I realized how lucky I was to be alive. That did not make me happy though, as the reality of how many close friends were not alive. The one that hurt the most was the loss of my childhood friend from the age of eight. She was my best friend, my soul mate and my rock. We went through elementary, middle and high school together. She helped me make it through when my father passed on at a way too early age. And then, on that day she was taken away.
At 9:00AM, I was on the No 5 train heading to 7 World Trade Center for a meeting. I was to meet several other detectives also going to the meeting (ironically about insurance fraud) for a quick breakfast at 9:30. When the doors to the train opened at Wall Street, a middle age man quickly got on the train. He was rambling “I can’t believe it…the plane just hit the building..don’t go there….” From that moment, everything else just seemed surreal.
I have pulled out of storage an envelope containing photos (printed ones from film) from that day, and days that followed. Only a select few family members have ever seen these, and I have selected a handful to share. The first one is the view of what greeted me when I stepped out of the underground subway exit. I stood with about fifty other people who had exited at the same time, all of us staring up, mouths open and in disbelief.
The rest of September, October & November of 2001 was very hard to get through. In December, I had another life changing event. I made the decision to purchase an A6. It is also going on 10 years since I joined the Audi community, and the forums. This really helped me deal with “life after 9/11”. I became very involved with a local Audi/VW car club. Weekly meets with great people sharing our love for these cars made a difference in my life. It helped me to cope. And over the years all those that I have met in person or shared stories with online in the forum have been there for me through my personal hard times.
May God bless America, as we remember the 2,996 people that lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
Stephen aka “5-Speed-6″
Ten years later and I can still remember it like it was ten minutes ago… I was working in the area and I dont think it is something I would ever forget. For everyone who was there or has survived all i have to say is we are ‘unbreakable’. New York Love.
Anyone who has been jaded by the passage of time and has lost the will and desire to seek not revenge, but overdue justice, just read this. THEN, and only then, can you tell me that we need no military, police, FBI, CIA, Secret Service, etc. Those who have become weak and have lost the faith in our country and way of life (which is the best in the world!), pause and reflect. If you still don’t believe, I have only sorrow for you.
That moment was etched in my mind. I really heard about it first on Audiworld (back then) when I logged on to the Off Topic section, the first thing that morning and saw what the buzz about this. I quickly turned on CNN and there it was. All our lives changed forever.
I won’t ever forget that morning. I was on my way to work and I heard on the radio how a plane had crashed into the world trade center. I gotta say at that point there was a pretty significant thing that happened literally the evening before. I rushed from work to the travel agency to pay for the trip I had planned to Florida to hang our with a friend for a week. Had I been minutes later I would have missed my opportunity and probably wouldn’t have gone. I won’t go into it, but I shouldn’t have gone. Either way I will never forget that day. It completely changed the way I saw our country, our way of life, and how we should defend it. You who were there I cannot imagine how you feel. Even now its tough to watch what went on there as we remember those who were lost and those who made a huge difference so that others might be saved.
09/10/2001 – late night partying at Windows Of The World since Penelope Tuesdae DJ’d there every monday night. got home late to catch the tail end of the monday night football between Denver and NYG.
09/11/2011 – missed my train to Hoboken which normally gets me to the WTC around the time the 1st plane hit. caught the next train and all the passengers saw the smoke from the first plane. everyone just thought that it was a small plane. got to Hoboken to find out that the PATH to WTC was shut down. took the PATH to Union Square and took the subway back down to my office which was 5 blocks from the WTC. subway was getting delayed. a passenger with her walkman on just told us that another plane hit the other tower. this was when i realized that this was no accident. we all were asked to get off the train at Harrison St. in TriBeCa. i was greeted by the tower with a huge gaping hole with flames all over it. a police office told me that the other one fell down already. this was when i decided to turn around and try to get back home (NJ).
it was a warm day, i had my gym gear in my back. i turned aournd and walked to a bodega to buy a big bottle of water. tried the subway – it was closed. i heard screaming. i turned around to see the second tower go down. i headed to Christopher St to cath the PATH back to NJ. i missed the last one before they shut it down. i head over to mid-town to try and catch a bus from Port Authority (which ended up being closed). the walk was long and chaotic. cell phone service was down. people were lined up to use the pay phones. service vans had their doors open with the news in full blast. every face i saw was a stranger. made it to the McGraw-Hill building where my girlfriend (now wife) worked. we were both relieved to find each other alive and well. we tired the ferry but decided to skip it since they were overloading them to the point of sinking. we checked in a hotel and stayed overnight. it was very surreal. NYC was very quiet that evening.
the next day came. we decided to walk over to times square to grab breakfast. it was EMPTY. it was like a scene from Vanilla Sky. we found out that NJ Transit was offering free rides back to NJ. we walked to Penn Station and headed home.
the past 10 years has gone by rather quickly. i still get very reflective this time of year. a mixture of emotions run through me. my wife and i decided to do something different. we still mourn the loss from the attacks but we felt that we should celebrate life. we decided to celebrate life and make sure our son and our soon to be born child will remember what we’ve gone through and learn to appreciate life and the freedom that we still have.