Remembering 9/11 in Southeast Texas

A Southeast Texan Remembers his 9/11 Experiences

On 9/11, I was working in Manhattan, for Discovery Inc.

I was the Ad Sales Support Manager for The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel (TLC), Animal Planet, and BBC America.

My brother was in Washington DC at the headquarters building for the US Coast Guard, near the Pentagon.

My roommate lost his cousin in the World Trade Center attack. She just disappeared from the earth. He went to ground zero every day for weeks helping in the cleanup, hoping something would be found to give her family closure. Nothing was recovered. She existed one minute and didn’t the next.

After the 2nd plane hit, I was in the last car, a taxi packed full of strangers, that was allowed to go over the Queens Bridge out of Manhattan.

We stopped on the center of the bridge and got out, hoping the devastation wasn’t as bad as we’d been told. It was much, much worse. The 1st tower had fallen before we reached the bridge. The 2nd tower fell while we watched, a nightmare come to life.

For the rest of the day, and into the night, people walked down Queens Boulevard to return to their homes or catch the Long Island Railroad. There were candles in every window.

We’ve all had times of intense sadness, but that was probably the greatest collective time of sadness I’ve ever experienced. Everyone on the street, in neighboring apartments, everyone you ran into was experiencing the same trauma, together.