Where were you?

Ten years ago I was still living in NJ. Still a smoker. Still working an EDJ.
Ten years ago it was a beautiful day in the northeast. I remember the clear blue sky, the sun shining, the temperature was perfect. A gorgeous day, I thought as I drove into work.
The office radio played in the background as I went about my morning duties, and shortly after I arrived, the DJs on the local NJ station said something that turned my head. “A plane hit a World Trade Center building.” Huh? Did I hear them right? Wanting to make sure I wasn’t going crazy, I went upstairs to ask the agents if they had heard the same thing. They had.
The atmosphere the rest of the morning was somber. Business ground to a halt. The phone was quiet. We were all transfixed with the news accounts coming through and absolutely stunned when they reported that the towers had fallen. [The NYPD (New York Police Department) logs the first tower's (South) collapse at 9:59 a.m., and the second tower's (North) at 10:28 a.m. The Twin Towers collapsed 29 minutes apart from each other.]
Hubby called me, all fired up and ready to go back into the military. I told him that I really didn’t want him to get back in, but understood where he was coming from and wouldn’t stop him if it was that important to him. He could see the smoke and the missing buildings from where he worked (and on the drive into work in the days to come.)
Later that afternoon, we closed the office and went home. I immediately turned on the news and watched the footage of the carnage in NYC. There’s the beautiful blue sky, the backdrop to the towers–a place I had visited, stood on the roof of one before it was closed off & people were directed to an inside observation room… to the planes flying into them… to the smoke and fire… to their collapse…
My heart went out (& still does) to the people who lost their lives in the tragedy and to their families who have been forced to live without them.
May we always remember…