In Memoriam

I remember being abruptly awaken at 3 a.m. It must have been an emergency since I wake up at 4. My friend, Grace, from FL was crying, asking me, "Where's your sister?" I said, "Home, in D.C. -- no wait -- she's on a plane. Why?" She had told me about the twin towers, and told me to turn on the T.V. I said I had to call my parents. First, I called my sis' home phone, then, her work nos., then, her cell. All dead. Finally, I called my parents and asked if my sis had called. It was then that I cried. They said they hadn't heard from her yet, as my sister religiously calls my parents in the morning and in the evening, local time. My parents assured me that they would call as soon as I heard from her. I told myself that if she didn't call by 6 a.m. here, I won't go to work. Just before 6, I got that call. The first thing she said was, "I hear you want to talk to me." She was so nonchalant about it that I thought I was being silly. She told me she was in a conference with her colleagues in a hotel. Once the towers were struck, my sis and her group had been sequestered in that same ballroom -- all communication lines blacked out. There was frenzy in and out of the hotel. After a few hours, everyone was able to call their loved ones. My sis told me, at the last minute, she decided to drive instead of fly. She promised she was okay and would call later, as she always did.
Later when she called, I found out that my uncle was at The Pentagon. He had just said his goodbyes to his colleagues and was riding the shuttle to the Pentagon annex. Minutes later, he heard everyone scream and point at the building; it had just been struck, as well. He started to cry: the side that had just been hit was the area of his old office. More importantly, he had literally just said his final goodbyes to his colleagues and friends.
As the cliche' goes, "Life must go on." A week later, my parents were on a plane to D.C. to see my sister, as scheduled. Three months later, I was on a plane to NYC en route to Paris to meet up with my best friend. She had suggested we meet at Ground Zero, which I flatly refused to do. I had seen the OK bomb site in '95. "We'll just meet in Paris, as we're supposed to do."
My parents told me after 9/11, just before leaving to see my sis, "If it's our time to go, we'll go. No sense in delaying the inevitable."
However, the people in the World Trade Center and its vicinity didn't have to go. For this, we will always remember them.