CLEVELAND, Ohio – You remember the smallest details.
Which classmates or colleagues you sat with, even if you haven’t seen them in years. What time you turned on the TV.
You were flying when the pilot announced the plane had to land. You were at school, shocked as you watched boxy TVs wheeled into classrooms. You were at work and drove home to hug your family tight.
You remember the brilliant blue of the sky, the hush of the world, the feeling in the pit of their stomach that nothing would ever be the same.
Dozens of readers of cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer shared their memories, from short lines to full essays. Read them below.
Christine Bates, South Euclid
On Sept 9th I had flown to Jacksonville, Florida, to pick up my mother who was extremely afraid to fly, afraid of heights, afraid to drive, etc. Her boyfriend picked me up at the airport and we met my mom at a Waffle House to do a car exchange. We drove half-way back to Ohio, slept at a family owned hotel, and the rest of the way on Sept 10.
One thing to add here is I am a flight attendant and my mother has the ability to fly non-revenue anywhere my airline flies. It’s brutally painful for me to drive her when she can fly, but that’s a whole nother story.
On Sept 11, we woke up to the news that we were being attacked. The first thing out of my mother’s mouth was, “See aren’t you glad we didn’t fly...”
I returned to work four days later. I had two people call me (who never call me) to ask if I was safe and if I was going to quit.
No. I’ve been flying for just over 23 years and don’t plan to quit anytime soon. (Unless I start feeling like my mom.)
Kathy Belden, 65, Canton
I had just returned from a long walk. It was a gorgeous morning. Returned home to the news. I knew in an instant that life would never be the same.
Thomas Bindernagel, 72, North Olmsted
I remember that day like it was burned into my brain.
What was freakish was we were studying free-fall velocity. We were almost finished dropping weighted objects from various heights!
No matter the weight they all fell at the same rate, like Galileo had demonstrated.
We had TVs in our high school science room and we were well into our science lesson
in physics when suddenly at about 8:40 a.m. we were joined to a report from NYC about a big fire due to a jet plane crashing into one of the Twin Towers. Many of the kids commented on the black smoke roiling from the top, and one said, “It’s an oxygen-starved fire, Mr. B.” I said, “Correct, and it would likely be extinguished”.
But forget the class; all eyes were glued to the screen. Suddenly another plane hit the second tower and the jet fuel exploded out the far side of the building, again flying debris and soon more black smoke. Reports of hijacking began circulating. But now we heard someone at street level say “The towers might collapse?”
We all thought that was a wild prediction, considering the mass of the buildings versus the mass of the jet plane’s damage way up on the 80 some floor in both towers.
I remember all that black smoke filling up a beautiful sunny skyline in New York.
A giant secondary explosion happened. Then we all heard pop, pop, pop, and … then suddenly we all watched in horror as one by one the Twin Towers free-fell into the ground. Parents started calling the school and picking up their kids; others stayed at school but that day like other historically tragic days, “will live in infamy!”
Melanie Bruss, 44, South Euclid
I was teaching kindergarten at Daniel E Morgan. I was in my classroom when it happened and didn’t have a clue. I went on break when my kids went to lunch. I walked in the office. There was a TV on and people standing around in shock, disbelief and horror watching coverage. I saw the footage and couldn’t believe it was real. Parents were calling wanting to get their children. A teacher’s fiance was stuck on a freeway. My brother was stuck at CSU. I had to go back into my classroom with 5 and 6-year-olds. I sat on a table and looked at their sweet faces in disbelief. One of my kids asked why I was crying. I told them in as simple terms as I could about the bad men. I remember Briana Ferris looking at me and asking “Why would anyone do something so mean?!” Oh sweet girl! 20 years later we still cannot understand! I hope you still ask important questions! I hope you still look at the world with the belief that more people are good!
Chris Canfield, Cleveland
On 9/11 I was at Toledo Hospital for a big job interview. I was touring the hospital when we walked into the COO’s office after a TV had been wheeled in and setup. We all started watching mouths agape. After a few minutes my host and I moved to his office. Both of us shook and confused. I was a few hours from home and felt i needed to head home ASAP - my host was more than understanding - as stunned and confused as I. We hardly started the interview and we never spoke again. The world had changed.
Brett Chabek, 43, Parma
I’m 43 now, so I was 23 when it happened. I had been delivering furniture for a local company for five years at that point, and we punched in every day at 8:45 a.m. That morning was absolutely gorgeous. Entirely too nice to go to work, so I called off and played hooky. Fixed some coffee and sat down to watch the news before I was going to figure out how to spend my day. Breaking news was just starting to take over all of the stations. A horrific accident in New York City. Mass confusion. Cameras trained on the building. I was watching when the second plane hit. The newscasters all skipped a beat. It was immediately apparent that there was more going on than an accident, but no one knew how to frame the situation. I called a friend: he came by and we watched the news from my rec room for the rest of the day. Completely awash in disbelief, punctuated by incoming calls from friends and family members that didn’t know what to think or do any better than we did. There was just an underlying urge to make sure that everyone we knew was okay. Friends with family members in New York State that were terrified. Family worried that Cleveland may be a target after hearing about the plane going down in Pennsylvania. The rest of the day passed in a blur, as I’m sure it did for so many people.
Joe Cimperman, 51, Cleveland
We had just started the Community/Economic Committee meeting at City Council in City Hall. One of the policy researchers ran into the committee room and told us to turn on the tv. While we all stared in horror, we were told to get out of the building as they thought the third plane was heading to our area. I will never forget getting a call from my elderly neighbor in Tremont who asked me to get some milk and bread for her as she thought we were being attacked and she was scared. I’ve never experienced such quiet streets or skies in the days after. I hope to never hear that city silence again.
Clark, 34, Spencer
I was a freshman at Black River High School, sitting in Biology 1 when the principal made an announcement that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. No one knew what to do about that, so class resumed despite the unsettling news. Next I had a study hall period and went to the library where they had a tube TV on a cart. A group of students and teachers huddled around the TV to get a report as the tower came down. After that, I don’t really recall doing anything besides sitting down in shock and the rest of the day was just going from class to class watching the TV and wondering what we did to deserve something like that.
Susan Clark, 70, Willowick
I was on vacation driving toward Baltimore to fly to North Carolina to visit friends. I stopped the night before in Clearfield, Pennsylvania. On the morning of Sept. 11, I tuned into the Today Show. When the first plane hit the tower, the show began covering the event, without knowing at first that terrorists had taken over the plane. I was startled by the plane crash, but then word came that the second plane had hit the other tower, and then I felt it was clear that someone horrendous was happening. I had to leave the motel to continue my trip, but I listened on the radio. Then the report came over the radio that a plane has crashed in Pennsylvania southwest of where I was located. And then the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. It was not known at first that the two plane crashes were related, but as the reports continued, I felt it was so surreal. Planes were ordered to cease flying, and as I drove, it was eerie to not see planes in the sky. Part of the impact of that day was fear that boxes could be bombs, as I experienced in Baltimore. The events of that day will never be forgotten.
Melissa Craig, 39, Medina
I was a sophomore at Kent State University, it was the day of my 20th birthday. Yep, I have a 9/11 birthday. I was leaving my chemistry class and heading to my dorm when I got a call from my dad asking if I was OK and where I was. I told him I was fine, heading back to my dorm to get ready for my next class later that morning. He told me to turn on the TV and that there’s been a plane crash. I rush back to my room, turned the TV on and found the first plane flew into the first tower. I was in total shock. Soon after that, we got emails from the university telling us classes were canceled the rest of the day. Then the second plane flew into the second tower. I couldn’t believe what I was watching, what was unfolding in front of me. My family members started calling me to make sure I was safe at school because we were told to stay indoors. They were also wishing me a happy birthday, but there was nothing happy about this day. My friends and I gathered on campus just watching this terrible history unfold right before our eyes. Being that it was my birthday, I felt best not to go out and celebrate. Just didn’t feel right. But my friends talked me into going to dinner on campus. We arrived at the restaurant inside the Student Center only to sit down and find TVs all around us with coverage of the terrible destruction of the towers from earlier in the day. It was a very somber birthday dinner, even though we tried to make best of the situation. Our hearts ached for those innocent lives we lost that day. Now, every year when my birthday comes around, I do my best to remember those lives lost. I don’t try to watch any of the coverage because it brings so many emotions on what should be a day to celebrate myself. Now, when I’m asked what day is your birthday? And I reply, Sept. 11, people always say I’m sorry. It’s a hard pill to swallow sometimes, but I do my best to celebrate my day as best as I can with respect to the history now surrounding the day.
Joe D., 44, North Olmsted
I was 24 on 9/11/01. I worked in Glenwillow at the regional service/repair center for Best Buy at a warehouse on Cochran and Pettibone roads. As an audio/video repair technician I had a repair bench with all the test equipment required to fix VCRs and DVD players including a TV with antenna signal. My co-workers and I were all down one big row, and we all had our TVs on on our benches but not on the same channel. Out of the blue my supervisor came running down our aisle screaming “turn on channel 3” (the Today Show). We all see tower two on fire. Just standing there speechless.. Then a couple minutes later the other plane comes into the frame and then hit Tower One. My supervisor and I were standing right next to each other, we both turned to each other and say, “Bin Laden.” I went home as they let everyone out of work, and the first thing I did was hug my mom. One of the tightest hugs I’ve ever given her.
Sylvia Davis, 66, Cleveland
The television sets had been turned on in all offices to the morning news shows. I saw the initial tower get hit. I was terrified and immediately thought of my only child.
Although my job was across the street from my home, but my son’s school was at University Circle (John Hay). In a panic, I told my boss I had to get my son, quickly grabbed my belongings and drove to my son’s school. To this day, I don’t remember any traffic on the way. At the school’s office, I asked his room number and stood outside his classroom, wildly getting his attention from the hallway. I tried to explain to my 13-year-old as we quickly headed for the car. I tried to stay calm for my son.
I remember the radio station played only soft, calming music -- the DJ said hardly anything. Most of all, there was an ominous quiet all around -- no sounds from people, vehicles or birds. No air traffic--just the bright sun, an eerie silence and blank, stunned faces as I glanced around sadly during the nervous drive home, not quite sure what I needed or wanted to do next.
Joey DeGrandis, 36, Solon
I was literally 16, going on 17 (my birthday is four days before 9/11). My car was new, my heart was open, and my world rotated peacefully with little friction. How could I anticipate the darkness that would soon descend on another carefree, sunny morning? Tuesday, Sept. 11 began, like everyone always says, very normally. Michael Jackson’s “You Rocked My World” woke me up with my alarm. In the weight room for first period gym class at Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills, someone asked if we could hit the showers, and I remember very clearly Coach Dugan responding, “not yet, it’s only 8:45!” (first period ended at 9:20). None of us had any idea that at this precise moment, the first lives of this terrible day were being extinguished, and events were being set in motion that, in less than two hours, would irreversibly change the course of human history.
The BC/AD moment was upon us, but in blissful ignorance I showered, changed, and went into my second period study hall. In a way, this was the last hour of true innocence I would ever know. Faith, Andy, and I were sitting around a small table in Gilmour’s Student Center, laughing and pretending to study. I haven’t seen or thought about these classmates in years, but wherever the three of us may go, we have the unique distinction of always knowing that we were together when we heard the news. Our Dean of Students entered, descending the stairs slowly, solemnly, joylessly and looking like she was in the middle of a supernatural possession. “Two planes have just hit the World Trade Center in New York City, around the 90th floor. It was a suicide attack is all we know.”
I thought about my parents, who had just been in New York that previous weekend (in the pre-smartphone world, my mom would snap photos and get them developed; we’d soon see her album, laden with pictures of the towers standing erect and untouched, as if unknowingly posing for their grand finale). My mind’s eye envisioned a small prop plane with a zealous, solo occupant crashing into the famous landmark. It was around 9:45 a.m. We moved into the library to gather around the television and tried to process the grainy images we couldn’t believe we were seeing: the erratic, violent flames shooting out from the upper floors; the silhouette of the two burning skyscrapers from afar, looking like identical cigarettes standing straight up and releasing their plumes in an oddly orderly way. In spite of the extreme context, it almost looked artistic — the dense smoke billowing out in controlled puffs, ever expanding in a uniform trail across the sky.
I couldn’t fathom, because I didn’t yet know, the human tragedy unfolding there as people were trapped; some falling or jumping. All I could think about was Home Alone 2: Lost in New York — when Kevin peered over the edge of the observation deck, snapping pictures with his camera, gazing around in wonder at all of New York’s boroughs and nearby states.
As a 17-year-old, relatively privileged American, watching the Twin Towers fall was a pivotal, transformative, and traumatic experience all-in-one. I hadn’t yet been to New York (even though I would move there in 2003, and am still living there today), so back then those buildings represented the boldness, strength, and spirit of a thriving, sexy metropolis. I looked forward to seeing them in movies, as establishing shots for my favorite sitcoms, and welcomed their arrival like an old friend; I never knew them, yet I somehow knew them intimately. They symbolized the audacity and cutting-edge coolness of not just New York, but the culture in which I lived and thrived. They were monolithic yet magical, standing like proud signposts or beacons at the foot of Manhattan, entire cities unto themselves, defining the era in which they existed. To see them destroyed like they were toys, thirty-year-old buildings crumbling in mere hours, was almost too much to bear. It forced me to reexamine my views on my world, my culture, and myself.
Carol Derov, 66, Chardon
The morning of September 11, 2001, I landed in São Paulo, Brazil, on a work trip. The Brazilian marketing director met me, and as we walked through the airport morning crowds we passed televisions in coffee shops. As I slowed down, watching a broadcast, my colleague’s phone rang- and we simultaneously heard the news. Crowds were forming in front of TVs as we rushed to his car and directly to my hotel. I believe I tried to call my family, but no connections were working. As more details emerged, I sat in the hotel lobby staring at the international news. Everyone was stunned -- hotel guests, employees, and my company was trying to get information for me. In the coming days, we had to physically go each day to the airline local office to see if they were allowed to fly again. Iy was about a week before I was told I could return. I was one of about 20 people on an empty 747. We were all in business seats, and we were told that many were air marshals and armed. That was the longest (10 hours) flight back to Houston ever -- and the quietest. Not a sound. It was like everyone was in shock and just wanted to get back on U.S. soil. I remember 9/11 like it was yesterday.
Dr. David P Dobrowski, Lyndhurst
At University Hospitals, the Cardio-Thoracic Surgeon and the surgical Residents had earlier completed their rounds, providing my release from the hospital, when a nurse entered my room exclaiming, ...
... " A plane just crashed into a building in New York...”
My first thoughts were, “Was that a small commuter or ‘sightseeing’ plane, or worse, a commercial jet leaving JFK or LaGuardia”...I quickly turned on the TV, hoping for any detail or the accident.
Not long after, with the rest of our nation, I watched live, the explosion into the second Tower.
I immediately called my wife, Cathy, and said, “We’re under attack”.
She exclaimed, “Who, who’s under attack?”
I simply replied, “America, us, our country”.
Cathy who was a nurse at University Hospitals, and was preparing to bring me home after my heart operation, rushed to the hospital to provide support for her fellow nurses, knowing full well what they might possibly expect and prepare for.
Then, the entire University Hospital system went into Emergency Disaster mode. Few know the tremendous effort UH performed for our country on 9/11, nor have given credit to that institution for its strong support role.
At that time, as fate would have it, UH was the designated Red Cross hospital, to support two other cities in a national emergency, New York City and Washington, DC.
At UH, the calls went out throughout all departments, directing a complete shut down into ER preparedness:
- All medical personnel were ordered to remain; as no physicians, nurses, or staff were allowed to leave.
- All elective surgeries were immediately cancelled, and the operatories were made ready, as UH was expected to begin receiving those wounded in NYC to be flown to CLE. Not soon after, they were put on alert, to the following situation that occurred in D.C.
Years later, I met a colleague who was part of the national disaster response team, who searched and recovered human remains from the Trade Center site. His description of the team’s effort to place the unidentified, into row upon rows of white, refrigerated semi-tractor trailers housed in a warehouse, hoping some day when science can provide genetic testing, to help bring closure for the grieving victims families. He simply stated, “This is our national moratorium.”
Near an anniversary of 9/11, a patient of mine, who was a retired airline pilot, remarked, “I have been involved in plane crashes, both as a pilot and as a passenger. The plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, United Flight 93, flew directly overhead, as I was at my family’s farm near Shanksville. You know how I knew they were in trouble? The plane was coming in upside down. I could see the windows. When I arrived at the crash site, I wasn’t the first, but was probably the second or third responder. The scene was one of a crater explosion. There were no skid marks as it came in nose first. Nothing left remained.”
From that tragedy; many known are justly recognized, but the tireless efforts of the nameless professionals and public who showed no hesitation in providing even the smallest assistance without any regard for the uncertainty they would encounter, are our true American heroes. They deserve a moment of thanks and prayer, especially on this 20th anniversary.
Pamela Ebert, Bay Village
My husband has been a law director for over 30 years. We attend IMLA
(International Municipal Lawyer Association) events every fall to meet with other law directors all over the country and in Canada. The year 2001 we were in New Orleans at an IMLA event. Tuesday morning my husband headed to his meeting. I got a call saying to come downstairs. Over 100 people from all over the country were watching the tragic events unfold on large screen TVs in a sports bar off the lobby of the hotel. Most were in shock. A lot were crying. It was such a powerful moment to be with people from
all over and experience this tragedy.
The hotel was incredible extending our stay since there was no way home. We tried many modes of transportation including a train station. We were on the nightly local news as a group of people trying to get home. We were finally able to get a van with a driver. There were 10 of us headed to Ohio. Some were dropped off in Columbus and the last of us in Cleveland. After several days of travel we were home. I will never forget that week and all the suffering our country endured.
Janet Esmond, 91, Mayfield Heights
On Sept. 11, 2001, my husband, Don and I were in Niagara on the Lake, Canada, vacationing with friends, Ben and Edwina, who lived in New Jersey. Around 8:55 a.m., Ben called our hotel room and told us to turn on our TV. We were actually watching TV when a plane struck the second tower. We were devastated, of course, but none of us more than Ben, who was retired but had worked for AT&T in a tower office. Two days later when we were returning to Cleveland, we wondered if we would have a problem getting back into the USA. However, all went smoothly.
Ruth Finley, 70, Cleveland
I was working downtown at a law office, as a clerk, on W. 9th and my boss came in and said we were under attack. The office had a small black and white portable TV and the receptionist hooked it up and we all watched the second building being hit and it’s collapse, the people jumping out, the firemen rushing in. The office closed for the day. I walked over to the other law office, my husband’s, where I worked part time in the Landmark building on Prospect Ave. I joined that office in the little break room and cried. Flashing security lights and voice announced the building was closing. We took the elevator down and walked across Ontario to the parking garage that now belongs to Jack’s. The streets were almost empty. I know it was a sun shining beautiful day, but when I think back about it everything is grey black and white. We got in our car and drove home. I continued to cry.
Charline Fobbins, 73, Cleveland I was a teacher’s assistant in classroom of first graders. When we realized what was going on the first thing we did as a school was to pray. We did a good job of keeping the children calm. After about an hour we began receiving calls from parents wanting to pick their children up. On a personal note I reached out to my son, who was on an Air Force Base in Texas. I was not able to reach him immediately. He did call later. That evening my family and I went to church. Our church was having a special prayer service for the victims, their families and our country.
Gail Fockler, 80, Painesville
My husband and I were going to a three-day conference in San Francisco. We added on a few extra days for sight-seeing. We left Sept. 11, 2001 from Cleveland Hopkins airport with no problem. I don’t know how far we got, before the captain got on the speaker and said, “I never thought I’d have to say this but we are turning the plane around we have to land. There has been a terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York city. All planes have to land.” We had to land in Detroit because there was a problem at Cleveland Hopkins. In Michigan, a bus was waiting for us and took us back to Cleveland. They had a TV so we could watch everything going on. Once at the airport, we couldn’t get our cars because of some security problem. It was figured out, got our car cars and got home about 4:30. What a scary and terrifying and sad day for all the people that died! No planes were flying for the next week. People were stuck all over the place. We are so grateful for getting through this alive!
Sylvia Fowler, 79, Brecksville
When I went to work that morning I was consumed with the beautiful morning – a clear blue sky and no wind. It was a day you wanted to put in a bottle, totally oblivious to how it would all change in less than 30 minutes.
About 8:35 a.m., my boss’ son -- who worked in lower Manhattan – called, and I heard my boss say, “A plane just struck the WTC – was it a private plane?” In the space it took Peter to answer, the next plane had hit the second tower and he responded “Dad, I’ve got to go.”
I walked into my boss’ office and we saw the planes coming in to land at Cleveland Hopkins. The weather or flight plans that day were such that the planes were flying north of his office but into the west over the lake and then they turned south to land. It was like a movie, they were so close together and landing so rapidly. We continued to watch the planes, and soon there were no planes in the sky. Then we heard about the Pentagon. At this time two things happened – (1) the building announced we were to evacuate via the stairs immediately, and (2) we were mesmerized as we saw a plane off to the east in the approach pattern the other planes had taken to land at Hopkins – but it had been 15 minutes since we’d seen a plane. It was out over the lake about 20 miles from Cleveland – and suddenly it did a 180 and headed East southeast. We believe that was Flight 93 that crashed in Pa. We have no reason to believe it was headed for Key Tower but … who knows.
The building guards told us to get out immediately – no ifs, ands or buts. The walk down from the 39th floor encompassed 78 flights of stairs. When we got to the ground floor and exited to Public Square it was sheer gridlock and eerily quiet. No one was panicking, but no one knew what to do. Everyone was in in a state of shock, but fully expecting to go back to work, and then were told the building was closed for the day and to go home.
By now we’d been on the streets for over two hours – strangely none of us felt insecure about this. We just wanted get home to our loved ones. The Rapid was shut down and it took several hours before you could catch a bus. I finally arrived home at 1:30 p.m. – never so glad in my life to be there.
When I went to work the next morning, our building was totally surrounded by unmarked cars with two policemen in each one. For the first time in six years I had to show my I.D. and all throughout the building there were many new guards. How they put this in place overnight I do not know but am grateful that management had taken extra measures to ensure the safety of everyone who worked in Key Tower.
Joe Gardewin, 75, Westlake
I was in Hawaii teaching at all-girls high school. My son was in the Army at Ft. Huachuka then. He called me. I spent the day listening to 15- and 16-year-old women express themselves. Interesting.
Debbie S. George, 61, Moreland Hills
I can’t remember yesterday but I can visualize my every step that day. I rarely travel for work but I was in NYC traveling as a designer with GE Lighting Nela Park for an event. My coworkers got out on the earlier flight to CLE. I changed my flight to the late morning as I was taking down a display in the NY Design Center, when someone came into the building, crying that a plane hit the World Trade Center. My husband called me and said, “Quick, check into a hotel room.” What amazed me was everyone was so kind to each other that day we were all in a daze. There wasn’t any traffic or cars in Times Square which was so surreal. It was unbelievably quiet. I was a fortunate one, on this sad date in history.
Thomas J. George, 57, Independence
I woke out of my drunken slumber to the phone ringing on my night-stand next to my bed in the Flamingo Hilton in Las Vegas. My buddies in the next room are yelling at me to turn on the TV. All I could really say was no, and that the flight home didn’t leave for another four hours. Click. Phone rings again. WHAATTTT!!! Turn the TV on there’s been a terrorist attack in NY. I get out of bed, and as the TV comes on, I see what I think is a live picture of the plane hitting one of the towers. Little did I know it was a replay of the second plane hitting the tower. BAM!!! I’m awake now. I throw on some pants and go to my buddies’ room a few doors down, flip phone in hand.
Little did we know that our decision to stay in Vegas one extra night to bet the Monday Night football game would result in our plight to get home. We were all schedule to fly back home to Cleveland on the Continental Airlines 11:45 a.m. non-stop. Having flown around a good amount for my job and having called Continental to a voice that had no ideas, I came to the realization we were not flying home today or at least for a few days. At that moment for whatever reason that I still can’t explain, I had the presence of mind to call Alamo Car rental and reserve an SUV for the next day.
After about an hour we decided to try and get something to eat, keep calling Continental, contact our wives, and find out if we could stay another night at the Flamingo. The Flamingo was cool, still no answers at Continental on the flip phone. We walked across the street to what was at that time Treasure Island. It was weird. People kind of dazed. Many looking up at the sky. All was going as planned. Breakfast was good; we were using a few pay phones with our calling cards outside the buffet entrance when someone pulled the fire alarm. Holy cow, it was mass hysteria. People went running everywhere because they had heard like us that Vegas was a target. We took off running down a long, flower-pattered carpet hallway. I had stayed at that hotel the year before, and I knew the pool was close by and remembered seeing exit doors there. We maneuvered toward the pool and we got to the doors and sure enough the exit doors dumped us in an alley. After some sure footwork through garbage and delivery trucks we made are way back out onto the strip.
The 9/11 night was filled with lots of questions, lots of beer, and some gambling that netted me about $500 large. We decided that if Continental couldn’t get us home tomorrow or the next day, we would drive it. The next morning Continental was unsure and didn’t have an answer. We checked out of the hotel and headed for the airport. In those days the car rental was at the airport. The taxi dropped us off at Alamo Car Rental at around 10 a,m. We were greeted with a wait line that would make a Cedar Point line look short. It was already about 80 degrees, and there was no shade. We waited in that line for four hours. As we waited a convoy of 20 to 25 cars were being brought in every 30 minutes. The 25 guys would just pop open the doors, leave the car running, and load up on an Alamo shuttle for the same weird ballet 30 minutes later.
We finally get to the counter and the dude issues us a Dodge Neon. I tried to be calm, but I probably wasn’t. My two buddies go about 6-4, 260 and 6-2, 260. I’m the small guy at 220 and 6-1. After some really good begging and some good negotiation with some of the $500 large he gives us a four-door Chevy Blazer.
We left right from there and drove straight through taking turns at the wheel. The road was packed with drivers heading east. We would stop for gas, bathroom breaks, and everyone looked the same. Just dazed and panicked. Thirty-three hours and 2,089 miles later we got home. It was by far one of my most miserable experiences, but it pales in comparison to all the people that lost their lives that day. Funny thing is after all that driving I nearly died 2 miles from my house when a herd of about 10 deer crossed my path at Pleasant Valley Road and Route 21.
Richard H. Geringer, 70
On September 11, 2001, I was on my way to a meeting with a client when I heard the chilling news that Airplanes had crashed into New York skyscrapers. The client who I was to meet had repeatedly told me over several months, America was going to be attacked and the U. S. government was not stopping the plot.
James Gibbs, 72, Middleburg Heights
On Sept. 11, I was at my job as a service representative for AT&T in downtown Cleveland. At 8:50 a.m. someone mentioned that an airplane had hit a building, but they didn’t say anymore. I thought some pilot must have lost control of the airplane. I left my desk and went into the break room where there was a TV to get more information. Just as I walked into the room, I saw on the television the second plane hitting the tower. At that point, I knew this was a terrorist attack. We were all in shock and dismay which turned into anger. The rest of the day when not at our desks, everyone went to the break room to watch the latest update on the tragedy. One of my coworkers went on break outside and thought she saw the plane which eventually crashed in Pennsylvania; but she couldn’t be sure.
At noon, management announced anyone who wanted to go home for the rest of the day could do so. Those who choose to stay would be taken off line to issue orders restoring long distance service to people who had paid their bill I decided to stay and issue the orders; because it was something positive I could do. Get people reconnected to long distance to communicate with loved ones. When I left work at 5:00, it was a strange quiet atmosphere downtown. There was almost no traffic and very few pedestrians. Like my parent’s generation dealing with Pearl Harbor; I will never forget, nor should any of us forget, the events of that day.
Joanna Gotwald, 60, Rootstown
Sept. 11, 2001, I bolted upright in bed and yelled, “What are we going to do if my brother has to go to war?” My husband re-assured me that it was a bad dream, but the dream was so vivid it scared me to death.
I couldn’t get that declaration out of my mind as I went about my morning! My brother had a new family, and he is the only male member of our immediate family left. I got dressed and went to work as usual with an overwhelming feel of deep sadness and a sickness in the pit of my stomach. This was one of those dreams that I just knew was a pre-curser to something horrible, but I didn’t know what and in a million years I could never have guessed what the morning had in store for the world.
I was at my reception desk at 8:46 a.m. when one of my co-workers came to the front and told me to turn on the radio. She said an airplane just crashed in New York City! I thought she was kidding until they brought a television around, and we were all watching it. That sickness in the pit of my stomach became so much stronger as we watched in disbelief as the north tower burned, the horror didn’t end as 15 minutes after the north tower was struck a second plane flew into the south tower and a few minutes later came news that another plane had gone down somewhere in Pennsylvania.
My dream was a premonition to what would be a day that neither I nor anyone in the United States could have ever believed would happen on American soil.
We were all crying or in shock. I remember some of the employees saying that they have relatives that work in the towers. We could do nothing but watch the horrible incident unfold before us.
The local and national news was running constant coverage and suggesting all managers and owners of businesses let their employees go home. They let us go and without any city-wide evacuation plan; whoever thought we would ever need one; we all ran out and rushed to get home to our families. The streets became jammed as everyone else in the surrounding buildings let their employees go too. Traffic was bumper to bumper, and emotions were running high.
My husband and I lived out near Hopkins Airport off Grayton Road, and we had become accustomed to planes taking off and landing. It was constant and after living there for years we didn’t even notice them anymore.
On 9/11 the sky overhead was the most vibrant blue I had seen in Ohio in many years, clouds were almost nonexistent, and the sun was shining brightly, it was a picture-perfect day.
The silence was overwhelming as the bustle of everyday air travel and car traffic came to a deliberate and sudden halt. The usual industrial whirring of the airport and surrounding businesses was silenced and the only other sound to be heard were police sirens in the distance.
It was an eerie and frightening silence so profound it demanded its observation, it seemed even the birds in the trees had stopped chirping in reverence to the day.
Debbie Gutzky, 48, Medina
My best friend and I were waking up in our hotel room in Charlotte, NC, to get ready for our flight home. We turned in the TV and saw the first plane had already hit. As we scrambled to get ready, we watched on the screen as the second plane hit. In shock and not sure what to do, we called our moms, who had no idea that anything had happened. We knew we couldn’t fly home and we’re happy we had a rental car. We learned we could drive it back to Cleveland but first had to go to the rental car facility by the airport. The line was horrendous, and my friend stayed in the car to ensure it remained ours. As I stood in line we learned of the plane hitting the Pentagon. After an hour, we were finally on the long drive home. Driving down I-77 was surreal. Hardly any cars in the road and only saw one military plane flying over Charleston, WV.
Kenneth Guyton, 60, South Euclid
I was working on E-36 Cleveland Fire Department, and we were on our first run of the shift. It was a medical run, and we were in someone’s living room tending to our patient. I was taking patient information and I glanced at the TV in the room. There was a high-rise building on the screen with black smoke pouring out of it, I asked the people who lived there, “What is the name of this movie you are watching?” and they replied, “That’s not a movie; a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center…” and that was how it began for me on 9/11/2001.
Kristin H., 46, Cleveland
I was living in Ireland and was alerted to turn the TV on. I saw the second airplane hit the tower on a live broadcast. It was one of the scariest moments of my life. I was 25 years old and thousands of miles from home. For 24-48 hours after it was impossible to get an international call through to my family, and at the time my cousin worked at the Trade Center. I had no way of checking in, and flights came to a halt in/out the U.S. for nearly a week. Thoughts at the time were that more attacks were coming or it was the beginning of a major war. It was shocking, frightening but more than anything heartbreaking. Still heartbroken for all those lives lost.
Debra Hairston, 62, Cleveland
I was living in Los Angeles at the time. My mom, who lived in Nashville, Tennessee, was on a senior bus trip through New England with friends from Cleveland. I returned home from my morning walk to get ready for work and my husband was standing in the great room with the television on. I came in and saw the first tower fall. I was still in shock, driving to work when the second tower fell. Then the panic set in as I said to myself, “Where is my mother?” I tried calling her all day, but the cellular network towers were down and no calls could go through. I called the company that organized the bus trip and they said they were looking for the group and had not heard from any of them. Knowing New York and a stop at the World Trade Center was on their itinerary I made one more desperate call to the bank to see if her credit card had been used lately and where. I went into a panic when the bank officer and family friend said she saw charges on her credit care at the gift shop at the World Trade Center. Now I was in a real panic. We declared among the missing and had to gather dental and medical records in case her body was found. It took the next three days to finally locate the group that had left New York just before the first tower was hit. I will never forget that those three days and thankful she and her group were able to return home safely.
Michael Hardy, 74, Pepper Pike
A business colleague and I flew to Milwaukee early that day and picked up a rental car to drive to Racine. When we walked into our client’s offices, everyone was fixated on the television pictures of the planes. That hit home. Our return flight was canceled. Fortunately we had the rental car. I called Avis to advise of my plans to drive the auto to Cleveland. Avis protested. We drove to Hopkins on 9/12. Driving through the heart of Chicago was sobering because there was no traffic and no visible activity. The Indiana and Ohio Turnpikes likewise were empty except for caravans of fire equipment heading east.
Arthur Hargate, 69, Cleveland
I was sitting at my desk at work. It was my birthday, so I was wondering what might be in store for me when I got home, hoping for a quiet night with family. I was wearing a pager, and suddenly the pager started going crazy, vibrating almost repeatedly as the messages kept coming in. My wife called. She was working at home and in tears. Not knowing what else to say, I assured her without evidence that things would be okay. A colleague popped her head in, saying, “It’s on TV in the lunch room,” and sped away.
The lunchroom was packed, everyone staring in stunned silence. Lots of tears there. After the second tower collapsed, I went back to my office and called my wife and said I was on my way home.
Hayley, 34, Cleveland
I was in ninth grade study hall. It was a big room the size of four classrooms, with four TVs, one on every corner of the room. Suddenly, all of the TVs in the room turned on. The principle came onto the loudspeaker and told us what happened. We were all shocked and scared and sad. I looked out the window and back at the tv. I felt sad for the victims and their families. I felt angry that someone would attack us. I felt scared that my city would be attacked. I felt for the people i saw on tv running covered in soot. I felt proud of the helpers, the firefighters, police, EMT, volunteers and everyone who risked their lives. I felt proud to be an American. I felt deeply for the victims, their families, and our country. I will never forget.
Nancy Havrila, 66, Middleburg Heights
I remember it was the perfect late summer day. I was at work and happened to be on the internet when I saw a plane had flown into one of the World Trade Center towers. About an hour later we were all in a small meeting room watching TV. At 2 p.m. they sent everyone home. I couldn’t understand how this could happen and was thankful we had just gotten back from a vacation as they grounded all of the planes. My husband and my children were also sent home and we sat glued to the TV for hours. My kids were teenagers at the time and I remember thinking this was the first time we had all been together in a very long time. My son was about to leave for Ohio State so this was actually the last time we all lived in that house as my son ended up moving to Columbus permanently.
Jim Holcepl, 73, North Olmsted
We were living in Gainesville, Florida, at the time. I was working at the University of Florida. It was a bright, crystal clear and absolutely beautiful morning. I remember that distinctly When I heard about the towers at work, my first thought was that it must have been a small private airplane. When we viewed it in TV...a total shock. We all left the office and headed to our homes. My family and I had visited NYC the previous fall and actually walked thru the Twin Towers shopping area. I travelled to the city often for my work in publishing so it hit me very hard.
David Hostetler 71, Ravenna
I was working at home in my apartment and was listening to Howard Stern who broke the news, so I turned on to watch it on the news, but turned the sound down because Howard’s reporting was so compelling as he was there.
Kevin Jacques, 62, Rocky River
On 9/11 I was in the U.S. Dept of the Treasury building on the grounds of the White House complex as I was a senior economist working for the George W. Bush Administration. When the planes hit the buildings in N.Y., a colleague came into my office and told me and we thought it there was an attack on N.Y. A few moments later the colleague returned to tell me the Pentagon had been hit. There was an eerie, sickening silence followed by an evacuate the building alarm. We exited out the east door of Treasury and as we were leaving secret service agents were rushing in to be sure everyone was evacuated. I remember thinking how brave they were. I ran into a high-ranking member of President Bush’s economic team on 15th who asked me what was going on. It was hard to explain and was made worse by the number of rumors as to what was happening real time. Many of those rumors turned out to be false but at the time you couldn’t tell. Our office ended up going to a bakery about two to three blocks east of the White House to reconvene. It was so hard to know what to do. I ended up going to a hotel to use a pay phone as cell phones weren’t working. I wanted to call my wife who lived in Crystal City, Virginia, near the Pentagon. The line was incredibly long so I begged a hotel concierge to call the church were my wife was working. I got the minister who took a message for my wife that I was fine but would have to walk home. Traffic at this point was in massive gridlock so cars were useless. A colleague and I walked home from the bakery. It took us a couple of hours, all the while we could see huge amounts of smoke coming from the Pentagon. When I got home my answering machine was flooded with Ohio friends calling to make sure my wife and I were OK. My wife and I were lucky as we had friends who worked at the Pentagon. We later found out none of them was killed, although we had a number of friends who lost coworkers and friends at the Pentagon that day.
Leo Jeffres, Cleveland
Some 20 years ago, I was doing my morning exercises, as usual, which I did to avoid back pain, when the phone rang. No one ever calls me in the morning, and when the machine said it was Charlie, I paused to answer.
“Leo, are you watching TV,” he asked.
“No, I never watch TV in the morning,” I answered.
“Well, turn it on. A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center.”
He was working at a construction site where they could see a television set turned on inside.
I finished my exercises and got dressed for my morning walk before I turned on the TV. What could be so important to interrupt my day. Then I saw it, and I paused before leaving on the walk.
I take various routes each morning, but this time I decided to walk towards Lake Erie, and it was a beautiful morning with clear blue skies. There was only a single plane in the sky, and it was turning around. I was to think about that a bit later.
My walk took me to the Flats and then up to the West Side Market, where I stopped at my usual coffee shop, Talkies, which had a huge television screen, and people were gathered around watching. No one was talking.
After a while, I continued the walk home, showered and headed to school, only to find the building locked and police nearby. Guess I hadn’t got the announcement of cancellation.
I went home but didn’t want to be alone, so I returned to Talkies, only to see the second tower hit and the first one fall. I was watching NBC, which had moved its studios across the river to report what was happening.
Then I heard that the Pentagon had been hit. This was serious. And then a plane crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania.
I wondered, like a lot of people if the U.S. was in a new war because clearly we were under siege.
I had been to New York City before, so I knew the World Trade Center area.
Before grand kids, the family and I took a trip to New York City, saw a few shows, took the double ducker bus tours, and passing by the World Trade Center. It was the summer of 2001. Since I paid for most of the trip, Charlie and Angie bought a t-shirt for me. It featured the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
For many years on Sept. 11, depending on the weather, I’ve worn that shirt, but, it getting old like me, so I take it out but put it back in the drawer when the day’s done now.
Now, when 9/11 arrives, and I’m still doing my exercises, I hope no one calls, but if the phone rings, I trust it’s someone trying to sell me something, not bad news.
Jinny Johnson, 73, Rocky River
Driving west on Fairmount, coming home after a good mammogram.
Mona Jones, 62, Lorain
I worked second shift. I was still sleeping. My husband had taken our daughter to school. Came back in and turned on the news just after the first plane hit. He woke me up, and I came in and 5 minutes later I witnessed the second plane hit. So sad to this day!
Susan Joseph, 69, Parma
I remember virtually every minute of my day on 9/11/01, as I’m sure most do of my generation. Here is just some of my story:
I got my youngest off on the school bus that morning; put some music on; puttered around the house, and then got myself ready for an 11 a.m. appointment with my massage therapist.
I left the house, and then kept asking myself where all of the traffic was on heavily traveled Broadview Road. Was there something going on that day that I didn’t know about? That lack of cars on the road was somewhat eerie.
I reached my MT’s home only to be greeted at the door with ‘what a crazy world we’re living in.’ I agreed, and then asked ‘are we speaking in general terms, or is there something specific you’re referring to?’ My MT led me into her living room where the TV was on. I got my first look then of the towers and the planes and the destruction, and all of those poor people running for their lives. The first words out of my mouth were, “Please God. Don’t let this be Arabs.”
Both my husband and I are second generation in this country, with all four of our grandparents coming from Syria, and what is now Lebanon. Our grandparents came here in the early years of the last century seeking a better life for themselves and for their families. I could fill page after page about my exceptional family, and their extraordinary accomplishments and contributions to this world that we live in.
I just wanted to get home! No one had cell phones in those days, so our landline was our lifeline.
I no sooner arrived back home when my oldest daughter called. The University of Akron had canceled classes, and she needed me to come and get her, along with a couple of other local girls from her dorm.
I called my youngest daughter’s school. The secretary informed me that they had not said anything to the children, and that there were no plans for an early dismissal.
I tried calling my husband at his school. Many times. All I got was a busy signal. I took off.
I had 77 practically to myself, and ignored the speed limits. I made the best time I ever did between our home and campus!
By late afternoon, my little family was all together, and safe and sound at home. The television was on hour upon hour. My heart was breaking over what I was seeing and hearing, and I couldn’t stop wiping the tears from my face.
I told the girls that if anyone asked, they were Italian. God forgive me.
It was late. We had learned earlier that the girls would both have classes the next day. My husband and I would be teaching the next day. Life would go on for us, but not for thousands and thousands of others. May their memories be eternal.
Josh, 42, Mentor
I remember being excited for the day. I was a young college grad working for a publishing company here in Cleveland. The company was hosting a technical conference in Orlando, Florida, and I was lucky enough to be working this. Traveling with my boss, I was bumped up to first class on the flight. It was a big deal to me, since I was sitting in the last row of the plane when we boarded and right before take-off my name was called over the loudspeaker to move up. That’s where the positive memories of the day ended. When walking through the terminal to board we could see the first tower on TV had been hit. It had just happened, and it was suggested a small plane had hit the tower in error. Boarding the plane in Cleveland that’s all we knew. We departed the gate and sitting on the tarmac ready to take off and the plane suddenly slowed and circled back for the terminal. Something was wrong. The woman sitting behind us was already on her phone -- a second plane had hit the other tower. A terrorist act. Everyone was in shock. When we reached the gate there was no delay to deplane and exit. We walked into the terminal and what seemed a very short period of time of looking at the TV the announcement was made to evacuate the airport. In a calm fashion they said. My boss and I were running, as was everyone around us. It was quite surreal and seemed almost a dream especially when we made it to the pick/drop-off area of the airport. Not a single car, taxi, bus or plane. Just quiet. It was already blocked off. We had to walk down the freeway to the park-n-fly to retrieve our car. We turned on the radio to hear more details. Drove back to the nearly empty office and flipped on the TV were we stayed glued for what seemed like ages. Most of the company/office had taken earlier flights the days before and were stuck in Orlando with the national flight lock down. Most drove back to Cleveland in rental cars. It was all surreal. And sad.
John A. Knapik, 67, Strongsville
I am a subject matter expert for air pollution control. On Tuesday 9/11/2001, I was scheduled to speak at a seminar in Newport News, VA. On Monday evening I had a flight from Cleveland to Newark and then from Newark to Norfolk, VA. That evening was rainy and gloomy when taking off. The weather deteriorated quite significantly by the time I landed in Newark and my connecting flight was canceled. I awoke Tuesday morning, 9/11, to a bright and glorious day at the Newark airport. The sky was the brightest blue possible and the air was as crisp as mountain air. Simply gorgeous. My flight was scheduled to depart at 8 a.m. but things were running late. I got upgraded to first class and had a window seat on the right side of the plane as we took off to the north at 8:35 a.m. As the plane lifted off, just outside my window across the Hudson River, was Manhattan and an unbelievably beautiful Twin Towers, shining out in all their glory. Little did I know that in a mere 10 more minutes, the first plane would hit the first tower. When we landed in Norfolk, the terminal was abuzz with news that the Twin Towers had been struck. My first thoughts turned to it being a small single engine plane, but how could that have ever happened on such a clear day? Two hours later I arrived to deliver my presentation. I started out by apologizing for being so late and began to explain the details of why, when I broke down and couldn’t continue.
Mike Kovack, Medina County auditor
I remember 9/11 very well. It occurred while we were at work. We actually set up a TV after the first attack and so were watching when the second plane attack happened. Numerous people here were very unsettled and asked whether we should evacuate. I told them I thought we were pretty safe from terrorism in the Medina County Administration building. More so than the events of that day was what ensued afterwards. Later that month I came home from work to see a letter from the Department of the Navy on my kitchen table. I had been in the Individual Ready Reserve of the Navy for eight years, after serving on active and reserve duty. During those eight years I had never heard from the Navy. The letter directed me to report to my nearest recruiting station to begin processing back into the naval reserve. By January I was back in uniform and I was actually in New York City for Fleet Week in May 2002 and was part of the honor guard that was on hand when they removed the last steel girder from the attack sight. In February 2003, I was deployed with a mobile anti-terrorism/surveillance unit to Turkey for the start of the Iraq War. Fortunately, Turkey threw us out and I spent the beginning days of the war in Sicily. I deployed into Iraq in 2006 with the first Navy Civil Affairs unit to plus up Army forces in Iraq.
Teresa Kowalski, Seven Hills
The week prior to 9/11 my dad was taken to the hospital diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He had been moved to a nursing home on West 150th that Monday. I was on my way to the nursing’s home that morning to have power of attorney papers signed. I got off the highway listening to the radio hearing about the planes. I kept thinking this is not real and then I finally realized this is really happening. Once I arrived they quickly took me to the large dining area with a big screen TV. Watching in disbelief and also watching these patients having no idea of what they were seeing. I quickly signed the papers, called my mother to pack her clothes , kissed my dad and left. Picked up my mother in Brooklyn, OH and took her home with me. The day didn’t end there as I worked for LTV and their data center was in downtown Cleveland. So we worked on logistics to move phones to the mill. As with everyone else I will never forget that day.
Deborah Laferty, 65, Akron
I was at Girl Scout headquarters is Summit County, and I saw video playing in a conference room. I was stunned and appalled. I immediately drove to my daughters’ school to make sure they were okay.
Paul E. Landis Jr., 86, Shaker Heights
I remember Tuesday, Sept.11, 2001, very well. It was a beautiful sunny day in Northeast Ohio. My significant other, Mary Jo Nigro, and I were driving from Shaker Heights, OH to Boston to attend A Gala Tribute to Jacqueline Kennedy, an invitation-only event hosted by Caroline Kennedy at the John F. Kennedy Library.
We left Shaker Heights early in the morning, and we were driving on the New York Thruway engrossed in an audio book unaware of anything else happening outside of our own little world. As we approached the Angola Service Plaza, we decided to make a bathroom stop and stretch our legs. When Mary came out of the bathroom she had a worried expression on her face and said that something “strange” was going on. There was a radio blaring in the ladies bathroom, and never ever had she been in a women’s bathroom with a radio on, especially one blaring, never. She said that something was wrong and sensed that something terrible had happened but didn’t know what. There were no other people around to ask, and that in itself was also strange.
We decided to drive to the next service plaza and stop to see if we could learn more. I don’t remember being overly concerned at the time, but we both knew that whatever it was had to be serious. I don’t know why we didn’t think to turn on the radio for any news. We just continued on, listening to our book.
A short while later we arrived at the Clarence Plaza. When we entered, we saw a crowd gathered around a television set that was mounted on a wall. The video on the screen showed an airplane heading toward the World Trade Center in New York City and then exploding as it crashed into one of the twin towers. It was a replay. We both watched as another airplane crashed into the second tower. We could hardly believe what we were seeing. Were we at war? Were we being attacked? We just stood there transfixed. It was surreal. I was trying to put two and two together, trying to comprehend what I was seeing. I was thinking this just couldn’t be happening in our country, not in the USA. I didn’t know what to say as all sorts of thoughts were running through my head. I felt numb and empty. “Let’s go,” I said to Mary Jo.
Mary Jo wanted to turn around and go home immediately, but I insisted we continue for a while. Mary Jo drove and we both listened to the radio for news while I tried to process everything. I was thinking there was no way are they were going to hold the event, which is what Mary Jo said as soon as we left the plaza, but I wanted confirmation. I kept calling the Kennedy Library on my cell phone, continually receiving nothing but busy signals. When I finally got through it was a recorded message saying that the event had been canceled. We turned around and headed for home.
That’s how I remember 9/11.
Almost 38 years earlier I had another visceral event. On November 22, 1963, I was a 28-year-old Secret Service Agent assigned to protecting Jacqueline Kennedy. I was with her in Dallas, when President Kennedy was assassinated. I was standing on the running board of the Secret Service follow up car, right behind the president’s limo when the shots rang out. That day and the events that followed remain firmly ensconced in my memory bank, more so than those of 9/11. And that’s why we were going to Boston.
Eden Le Bouton, Cleveland
Sept. 11, 2001, was a beautiful day in Cleveland, Ohio. There was not a cloud in the deep blue sky. It was also my 43rd birthday and I carried a secret in my heart – Sept. 11 is MY day, and nobody knows how special it is but me.
I worked at a bank and was talking with some people when one came in and said a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade buildings. We thought pilot error and thought it was a small plane. Somebody turned on a radio and we heard about the second plane. That’s when we all froze and said “terrorists.” My special day? On my special day?
Everyone working in downtown Cleveland was sent home. There was gridlock at every intersection. My partner and I (we were tech support) were told to go outside and stand in the parking lot. We knew some of our team were working at Erie View so we walked down to hang out with them and eventually went to a restaurant where we saw the crashes for the first time on a TV. By the time we left the restaurant, downtown was deserted.
My boyfriend took me to my birthday dinner, and there was only one other group there. The waitress said a lot of the staff called off. I was in a unique position to see each year after that how people treated Sept. 11. A few more people the next year, a few more the next, but always people celebrating something. By the fourth-year people were out in droves.
Planes were grounded, and it was so quiet. I was used to hearing them fly over my house. One week later I was on the bus going to work listening to a story on NPR. It was about people who worked at Windows of the World meeting for the first time. The interviewer homed in on two men talking – both foreign with very different accents. One said, “Look there’s Jan! Jan is here! He is alive!” His friend told him that who he saw was not Jan, but his brother. I was crying on the bus when I heard this story and then and there decided to name my next dog Yann (Jan is Polish, but in America you know people think Jan as in Janet). My dog wasn’t even born until 2003. I named him Yann (Jan) because I thought who in the world besides his family and friends is going to remember a young Polish boy who died in the terrorist plane crash on Sept. 11? My dog has crossed the Rainbow Bridge, but when I talk about Yann, which I do a lot, and say his name, I automatically think of Jan the boy. To this day I do.
Each year I feel compelled to watch a 9/11 documentary that aired on CBS. It was about a film maker who, with two French brothers, were making a documentary about a rookie New York firefighter from a house near the Trade Centers. Every one of them were inside the buildings even during the collapses. It is a showing of heroism and horror.
I have a friend who turned six-years-old on September 11, 2001. When I saw her in 2001, she cried and asked if we would ever have a happy birthday again. She grew up into a beautiful young lady and will be 26 years old this year. We will be together on our birthday and will have a good time.
In the end Sept. 11 is the best day of the year for me, but I also know it is the worst day for a lot of people. And that makes me sad. It used to be a day that only a few of us treasured, and just another day for everyone else.
Betsy Lerch, 69, Cleveland
I was at work at the Willoughby Public Library in downtown Willoughby and a customer came in about 9:20 a.m. and told us that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. I’m sure we must have asked the customer some questions, but then we switched our computer monitors from library work to the news. Of course, it was utter confusion on the events, and all we could do was watch -- shocked and gathered together around the monitors -- as the horror continued to happen. I remember all of us feeling afraid since no one knew yet what was going down.
Renee Lewin, Cleveland Heights
Just the Sunday before, the weather had been gorgeous and we took our 7-year-old daughter down to Hudson Piers for miniature golf. At one point, she looked up and said “Hey...there’s only one Twin Tower”—an optical illusion that occurred when, from a certain vantage point, one tower was obscured by the other. We told her there would always be two. (In retrospect, a haunting prelude.) The early morning of 9/11 was equally splendid as I dropped her off at school near our loft in Chelsea and headed to my office uptown for our regular 8:30 national sales call at Esquire magazine. The meeting was interrupted when our Detroit representative told us to turn on the TV in our NYC conference room: A plane had crashed into one of the towers. Just as we tuned in, the second tower was hit and for the next few hours, we were transfixed, horrified, and dazed by what was happening just a few miles away. That afternoon, in my four-inch YSL stilettos (I had no other shoes in the office!), I began walking downtown with a colleague. I had just stopped smoking, but as we passed a bodega I didn’t hesitate to walk in, buy a pack, and light up. (Not the right time to quit!) Two+ miles later, I picked up my daughter only to learn that several of her classmates’ parents worked downtown and had not been heard from. We headed home and passed St. Vincent’s Hospital, where a line had already snaked around the block with volunteer blood donors. As hours passed with no ambulance sirens, we knew they would not be needed. Heading into our building, we ran into a distraught neighbor. Her cousin — more like a brother in truth — worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. They would lose more than 900 employees that day, her cousin among them. By nightfall, the volunteers surrounding St. Vincent’s would be gone, replaced by a frantic flurry of fliers with the faces of the missing plastered on bus shelters, buildings, mailboxes, and the walls of the hospital itself. “Have you seen…” messages haunt me to this day. We lived one block from the barricaded zone on West 14th Street where workers came and departed daily from sorting through the rubble. I would see them leave exhausted, coated in debris, often crying. This went on for weeks. I learned that a close colleague had lost her only brother, one she had raised when their parents died and had put through culinary college. He had been the manager of Windows on the World — the dazzling restaurant atop the Trade Center — and ordinarily would not have been onsite early in the day. But there had been a major breakfast event on 9/11, and he wanted to make certain in had gone off well. The pain was everywhere, relentless for days. In the fog of it, I had somehow worked my way uptown to Harlem and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the world’s largest cathedral and a beacon of ecumenical enlightenment. Visitors had heaped flowers upon the sculpture that honors the 12 firefighters who died in what is known as the 23rd Street Fire on October 17, 1966. It had been the largest loss of life by the Fire Department of New York in a single event until 9/11, when 343 perished. Overcome with emotion, I sat down in one of the pews and suddenly realized I had not been alone in my journey: my dachshund Max was tucked inside my tote bag. I panicked: Was it not sacrilege to bring a dog into a place of worship? Then, a priest approached me and asked if I was ok…would I like to light a candle to add to the firefighters’ memorial? I hesitated, telling him I didn’t think that would be appropriate because I was Jewish. His answer was emblematic of this church that I so admire and treasure: “God doesn’t care.” My final memory is bittersweet, given where we are 20 years later. It is the sweet memory of a wildly diverse city whose people came together in shared grief, in shared pride, in shared triumph over those that would destroy us. It is a bitter reminder that we are no longer those people and, instead, seem hell-bent on destroying ourselves.
Carl Liedtke, Orwell
I was at work in Chardon. At first we thought it was just a tragic mistake. But as the day went on and we learned more our feelings turned to shock horror and fear for our and our families’ safety. Very uneasy. Glad to get back to our families that night. Checking on other family members. Not knowing what was coming next. A very uneasy feeling the next days.
Dave Lupyan, 68, Chagrin Falls
I remember thinking what a great morning it was to travel – one of those perfect, cloudless September days. I was meeting my two colleagues at the Continental Club at Hopkins to catch a 9 a.m. flight to Houston. The three of us worked for the Pennzoil Corporation; I was vice president of R&D and a frequent traveler to Pennzoil Headquarters. This trip was supposed to be an easy one, just some training, so we boarded the plane relaxed and in great spirits.We had been in the air for approximately an hour when the captain made a sudden announcement causing a ripple of unease throughout the cabin. I paraphrase; “Hello everyone. We are about 20 minutes from Lambert Field in St. Louis. We are going to set down there for an undetermined time. When we arrive, I would like everyone to assemble at the gate for a quick update on the status of events currently unfolding in our country. We’ll be able to tell you more at that time.”
I had an aisle seat and immediately scanned the faces of those to my right. My fellow baby boomers were just as puzzled as I was. We guessed it could only be one thing, Nov. 22, 1963, all over again. It had to be. Anxiety grew as the plane slowly descended onto the tarmac and taxied to the gate. As we exited, I grabbed my carry-on and noticed no one was gathered in the prearranged group. Approximately 50 people stood in front of the CNN monitor at the next gate and saw repeated footage of airplanes slamming into the towers. The St. Louis airport terminal was a semi-chaotic cluster of confused travelers milling about on cell phones and crowding around TV monitors.
10:05 a.m. CST, by this point, any anxiety I had was replaced with anger. There is chaos, I am hyper alert, and I am the person responsible for getting our group back to Cleveland, or Houston, or wherever we were going.
Pam Maly, 72, Seven Hills
On the morning of the terrible destruction of the World trade Center towers, I was teaching second grade at Goldwood Elementary School in Rocky River, Ohio. As soon as the news spread quickly, over half of my students’ parents came to retrieve their children. The staff was unable to watch the news on television and had to go about our day as if it were an ordinary teaching day, minus half the class that had left by 9:45. However, it was far from ordinary and most of the staff rushed home at the end of the day to fill in the rest of the story.
Paul Marnecheck, 39, North Royalton
I was teaching a class in Bowman hall to freshman. As soon as class ended, since the rumor was that Cleveland or Akron may be attacked, I called relatives to check in
Philip Marette, 65, Medina
I was on the 8:15 a.m. flight from Atlanta to Dallas. Naturally we were not told anything on the plane. A couple of things struck me as odd though. First the pilot called all the flight attendants to the cockpit which has never happened to me before. Secondly we were flying over DFW to make a U-turn to land and I noticed there was no planes on the runway or taxi lane. We landed at 10:15. I was the first off the plane and the flight attendant was told by the gate agent that we were to get our bags and exit the airport ASAP. I came off the plane and the airport was deserted except a handful of people watching the TV in a bar. I looked up and saw the first tower collapsing. That was my first knowledge of the tragedy
Colin McCormack, 37, Akron
I was in high school at the time, on my way to take a geometry test that I was sure I was going to fail. Several students came running down the hallway shouting that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center buildings. We all thought that we had heard him wrong. An all-school assembly was then quickly called, where we were all given the news. None of it seemed real. It all just felt so otherworldly.
Troy Meinhard, 51, Shaker Heights
I was working in Chicago for a large consulting firm. Initially there was an email referencing the “plane crash” and indicating that people should plan to work from home. Given the nose-to-the-grindstone, work-hard, client-service-is-No.-1 culture of the firm, and the fact that we didn’t really realize that it was an attack, no one wanted to be the person who left. Until the admin staff was sent around to bluntly order people to turn off their computer and leave. They apparently had orders to insist people immediately power down and leave, because they didn’t even let people finishing saying, “OK, I’ll finish this one thing then power down” before they cut you off and told you to power down now. Our building was directly across the street from the Sears Tower. As I was walking past to go to the “L,” a friend who worked in the Sears Tower was getting off the train to head up to his office on the 90th floor to “get a few things.” I grabbed his arm and pulled him back on the train. We spent the rest of the morning at a restaurant watching the coverage before I went home and watched the coverage from home with my wife and 1-year-old for the rest of the day. Obviously our 1-year-old didn’t understand, but that evening he was absolutely inconsolable and it was almost impossible to get him down for the night. He definitely sensed my wife and my tension, fear, anger.
Amanda Mercer, 57, South Euclid
I was getting ready to go into work. I worked at Saks in Beachwood at the time. I had on the Today Show and was shocked to see a view of the WTC tower with a gaping hole. I went and continued to get ready, as many thought it was a commuter plane. Once I was ready to leave, I was about to head out, and the second plane hit. I screamed an expletive, and my phone rang. It was an ex who had been in the military. He stated that he thought we were under attack, but to go to work as normal. I drove the short distance in a state of shock. What was going on? Each person in the cars around me had the same stunned look. How could this happen on such a beautiful morning? Why would someone attack us? As I got to work, we were informed that the Pentagon had been hit, and that we would be allowed to go into the break room to check on the news, but be aware of floor coverage. We all took turns, sharing when the first, then second tower fell. Soon after, we were informed that we would be closing for the day. I went to my parents’, where my dad sat looking so sad that he would see something like this again in his lifetime. He was born in 1931. We frantically called my mother, who was traveling in the Finger Lakes region. She never turned her phone on! I remember getting home later and watching the news and just crying.
Susan Mikolic, 61
I was working in my home office and went to my kids school and brought them home.
Al Mitchell
I started out as a normal shift change at my Fire station “high on a friendly hill.” That was the slogan for North Royalton.
It was a nice day. We had just fueled the fire pumpers and rescue squads. The TV was on in the day room when we returned to the station. The World Trade Center towers were visible and the newscaster was saying that a private plane had crashed into one of the towers. I called home to my wife and told her to turn on the TV at home. I was trying to comprehend how a pilot could make such a mistake. As I watched the TV, an airliner crashed into the second tower. I could not believe my eyes. It no longer seemed like an accident. Sept. 11, 2001, would become the most painful and exhausting day of my life. We had many calls that day as a result of fear, panic and depression in addition to the normal health related calls. I began to hate the TV because painful images were replayed over and over again and very little real information was being made public. I took a break from the TV and stepped outside in the back lot behind the fire station. The sky was strangely silent. All flights were supposed to be grounded. Then I noticed a plane to the northeast heading west. The plane did something I had never seen before. It made a U-turn and was now heading east. I later found out that I had been watching Flight 93. I was in shock when the towers began to collapse. So many of my brother firefighters and innocent people were suddenly dead. This day was to be my last 24 hour shift prior to leaving for a two week camping trip to South Texas. Things were just not making sense. The last call of my shift was a late-night house fire. We were able to extinguish the fire and there were no injuries. I returned to the station, soaking wet from working the fire. I changed into some dry clothes and was moving through the pitch-dark bunk room until I reached my bed. I was hoping it was a dream. It was not. I set out on my trip after the country started to reopen. I was in New Orleans on Sept. 18, where I witnessed clergy from many faiths come together at a church in the French Quarter. America came together as one. It was great while it lasted but it did not last. I will never forget the attacks on Sept. 11, and I pray to God that it is never repeated.
Moira, 30, Sagamore Hills
I was in my fifth grade classroom when the world stopped turning on that September day. My father (deceased) picked-up my brother and me up from our little Catholic school and we went home to watch the coverage.
Lolly Mondak, 74
I remember vividly where I was. My husband and I were with another couple visiting London England. The morning of September 11 we were on a double-decker sightseeing bus when somebody mentioned something happened in the states, a plane crashed into one of the twin towers. They said it was on the news. They weren’t sure of the details so at the first opportunity we left the bus to find a television. We ended up at Harrod’s department store and went to where they were selling TVs. We weren’t the only ones there was quite a large group gathered watching the news. We watched over and over the planes hitting the towers and the towers collapsing. It was one of the saddest days of my life. All the flights to the United States were canceled and our only thought was to get back home and be with our families. We were so confused we weren’t thinking straight luckily the mother of the other woman took it upon herself to get us flights home for Thursday of that week. Coming home was an experience in itself. Originally we were to fly to Atlanta and switch planes there, but our new flights took us to Boston where we had to change planes. It was the first time I had been in an airport in the United States where policeman and soldiers were carrying rifles. There were also dogs checking everybody out. They stopped most people and double checked their passports and flight information. It was racial profiling because we weren’t stopped, three of us were blonde hair and blue eyes. It was totally surreal. People in London were very sad for us and couldn’t have been kinder.
Hugh Morgan, 68, Cleveland
I had just come into the office that morning. My wife called and told me to turn on the television. I didn’t have one so I turned on radio and internet. It became quickly clear of the initial plane crashing into the WTC. I immediately tried to reach my daughter who was working a consulting job in Manhattan and my sister who was principal of a parochial girl’s high school in Manhattan. I couldn’t reach my daughter. My sister had not yet heard and she said she needed to go to protect her kids. I called one of my clients. We commiserated.
The next couple hours were spent worrying about the above and the plane that was over Cleveland which eventually went down in Shanksville. Also the plane that crashed into the Pentagon and it’s destruction became evident .
It was an intensely problematic morning. Was I afraid? Just for my family initially. I was worried that this was the start of a war that would have devastating repercussions!
Nestor Michnyak, 60, Seven Hills
I was assigned to the Counterterrorism Division at FBI Headquarters that morning. Headquarters personnel departed the building before the second tower fell. We had beepers back then, so we walked away from headquarters and the White House. We returned about three hours later to learn which 12-hour shift that we would work. I watched the Pentagon burn that Tuesday night from the roof of my apartment complex which was half-mile away, under the fight path of the plane that crashed into the southwest side of the Pentagon.
Richard J. Naso, 76, Medina
It was a beautiful Tuesday morning. Not a cloud in the sky, and as I walked outside to pick up The Plain Dealer in my drive, I remarked to myself, wow it is uncharacteristically clear. Just beautiful clear blue sky. I was off work that day, and we were having new carpeting installed at our home. At about 8:30 a.m., the workers were bringing in their equipment in the house. I was reading the paper and listening to the radio. As the 9 a.m. news came on the air, the newscaster had said “a small plane has hit the upper floors of the World Trade Center building,” but then he added, “as we are watching the TV monitors it seems like a rather large hole” at that point I immediately ran upstairs to turn on the TV in our bedroom to the Today Show. Sure enough they had a camera pointing directly at the north end of the West Tower, and I remember thinking, wow that looks like a rather large hole for a small plane to make. As I was standing there looking at the screen, all of sudden, the East Tower had a rather large explosion of the left side of the screen. Because it came from behind the building, from the south, I couldn’t tell it was another plane. My immediate thought was “they’re blowing up the buildings.” I became very upset, and spontaneously, punched the pillow on the bed, and saying something unprintable. I then kept watching and then talked to my wife who was at work, not really knowing what was going on. As the day unfolded my kids came home with a look of bewilderment on their face asking me what was going on. By that time it was made clear that the planes’ were loaded passenger planes, with innocent people on board, and they were sent to their death along with the people trapped in the buildings. Of course, we all had known about the other planes that were hijacked by noon. I really remember, just as with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, this could lead to war.
Lori Navin, 64
My husband, Charles Navin, 65, of Willowick was in a Jay Honda conference room and a small TV was on showing the news. The conference room filled with his coworkers to watch. I was in Beachwood at Ohio Education Association. A coworker and I went to our conference room TV and saw the 2nd plane hit in disbelief.
Marilyn Nenadal, Parma
I have been an “airplane nut” since the age of 8 when my grade school class got to enjoy a static display DC3. As an adult, we lived in a Hopkins flight path for 32 years where I observed planes from my back yard. So, I became a good judge of flight paths.
On that beautiful September morning in 2001 I had a breakfast meeting with my supervisor. Instead of my usual time and route to work, I left a little later. I was traveling a little farther down the road that I normally took. I saw a plane whose altitude was lower in the sky than I felt that it should have been. Also, the direction was baffling and it wasn’t at the right altitude to be in a landing pattern and too low to have taken off from Hopkins. The direction seemed wrong too, from traffic patterns that I was use to observing. I drove on and didn’t give it any more thought.
When I got to my breakfast meeting a TV was on and several police were sitting at the counter. It was the very first indication of the problems on that faithful morning. One of the officers stated that they’d probably be called back in.
We had our breakfast meeting but, upon getting more details on the events unfolding, we broke up early and I headed back to my job in a nearby government building. News started filtering in and being in a government building, workers were starting to get nervous. It was determined around noon that we needed to vacate the building. After arriving home, like the rest of the world, I watched TV for any news.
As time went by I played my plane sighting over and over in my mind and got all the information that I could and determined that that was Flight 93 that I had observed.
Several years later I went to Shanksville, I just had to pay my respects.
So many lives were lost and so many still are impacted.
Betsie Norris, 61, Shaker Heights
I was at work at what was then the two-person office of the nonprofit organization I still lead, Adoption Network Cleveland. I was on the phone with an adult adoptee whose birth mother we had also heard from. I was in the process of facilitating a first connection between them, an exciting and joyful moment. The first plane had hit but we just thought it was a horrible accident. She had the TV on in the background and saw the news about the second plane. She told me what was going on. It felt unreal as the realization sunk in that this was a deliberate attack. Our office at that time was in the Shore Cultural Center in Euclid, an old school building. We had no TV and I remember searching for information on the Internet, but of course the Internet was not then what it is today with live news coverage. We felt helpless and scared. At some point a little later we learned about the other planes and that a hijacked plane might be circling over Cleveland. I felt desperate to get my son from his preschool not far away, but there seemed no safe place to take him.
Gail Norris, 73, Willowick
Like most people, I vividly remember when I learned what was taking place on 9/11. I was at work in the communications department of a major Cleveland-area employer. My husband was home that day. When he heard on the radio what was happening, he quickly turned on the TV and called me. I passed the word in my department, and someone found a way to watch what was happening. We were all shocked and in disbelief, and many of us, including me, sobbed as we watched the attack unfold. I remember thinking that this must have been somewhat like what my parents experienced when Pearl Harbor was attacked; however, with our TV coverage and social media, ours was more immediate and hit closer to home.
Our company’s travel department was adjacent to the communications department, and I learned we had a number of employees on their way home when the US airspace was closed down. I learned later that most of them landed in Nova Scotia, very fearful because initially they had no idea what was going on. The silver lining was that they were welcomed into people’s homes and treated very well while they remained there for several days before being able to fly again.
When I went home that night, I saw the attack over and over again on TV. I was numb and very depressed. Who could possibly attack the United States in this way? How dare they! What a terrible tragedy had happened here in the US where we had felt safe! It took me a long time to feel safe again, particularly at the airport a month later when I had to fly for business. I remember looking critically at everyone around me and questioning their intentions. I was a bit of a wreck that entire day and the day I returned home.
Jo Manette Nousak, 68, Cleveland
Walking along the Palisades in Jersey City on my way into Manhattan, I carried three copies of my 300-page dissertation. The happy blue-sky-morning’s task to deposit the D and sign out of grad school turned into . . . “How are they going to get that fire out way up there?” Then a plane mid-building-level flying south . . . . didn’t come out the other side. I navigated my way down the hill to my office where I heard three tearful and anxious phone messages from two sisters and a cousin in Cleveland, but by then the phone lines were down. Three siblings were working in downtown Cleveland; one brother had flown into Newark that morning. It was mid-afternoon before he got through on my office phone line and could e-mail or call the others back home that I was OK. You see, one sister knew I was going into Manhattan that morning. In 2019 I went to the 9/11 museum. On the second level down there is a wall with all the blocks of sky colors of that day -- teal and blue and purple and blue. It had been some time since I teared up remembering those awful days, but I did again once I picked out the blue-sky color of that long-ago September morning.
Paul Oyaski, 69, Mayfield Heights
I was mayor of Euclid. I was at city hall that Tuesday morning. The fire chief told me about 9:30 that all planes were grounded. When I saw the Towers collapse, I thought 10,000 people had died. I drove around my hometown that afternoon and no one was out.
Veronica Parks-Robinson, 76, East Cleveland
I was in the kitchen drinking coffee. I turned the TV on and heard a plane had hit the tower in New York. I did not think too much at first, except to think the pilot must have been drunk. It was such a beautiful day. Just as I sat down the second plane crashed the tower. I could not believe my eyes, I was in shock. When they repeated it I just cried. It was unforgettable.
Bob Paulson, 68, Bainbridge Township
I worked from home and was driving to the gym when I heard on the radio that a small plane had struck one of the World Trade Center buildings. I was on an exercise bike when I watched the second plane go into the other tower. I got off the bike and called my wife who worked at a nearby middle school. I said to her, “I think you need to turn on a television.”
Marge Pawloski, 76, Twinsburg
It was a beautiful, warm sunny September morning and as I sat at my desk preparing for the day ahead, I received a phone call from my husband. He told me the TV was reporting an airplane had hit the Twin Towers in New York. He thought it must be a small plane as there was no other information offered. I hung up and went to the break room with my co-workers hoping to get more information from the TV. In just a few moments, our lives turned upside down. Seeing the plane hit the second tower in real time was horrifying and it was obvious this was not an accident. We started calling our families, telling them to get home to be safe. But we all thought “Are we safe?” I got a frantic phone call from my son who called me from his job in Michigan. His voice shaking, he asked “Mom, what the heck is going on?” He was panicky. He heard rumors of terrorists and when he tried to withdraw his two young children from the daycare provided by his employer, he was told they were in lockdown. By that time it was obvious we were under attack. Both towers gone, the Pentagon attacked, a hijacked plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field. As I witnessed the death and destruction of that day’s events, I experienced every emotion possible. I’ve lived through the Vietnam war, the JFK and RFK assassinations and the Kent State massacre but I’ve never felt as hopeless as I did on 9/11 and the days that followed. I will never forget.
John T. Petures Jr., 63, Stow
We awakened this day, pretty much like all others
We got up as a family, two sisters and their brother
“What celebration this evening?” I exclaimed as a test,
“Have fun in your classes and give it your best”
But later that morning we marveled to see
Such inconceivable images and thought “This certainly can’t be”
One plane….no it’s two now, had gone terribly off course
Crashing and burning with such incredible force
In silence and amazement we gazed and we listened
Disbelieving human beings could carry out such a mission
Innocence and horror thrust together above a city
We struggled with our anger… bewilderment and pity
In an instant of terror, death rained from above
Overwhelmed our compassion, overshadowed our love
This unimaginable tragedy, that shattered our world
Stark visions of destruction and flags now unfurled
What do we say so our children will know?
That our lives must continue, that our spirits must grow
We saw acts of heroism, kindness and caring
Fireman so courageous, policeman so daring
This was my day, I thought to myself
Forgive me oh God, for the selfishness I felt
But this of all days had changed us forever
This attack …so evil and inhumanly clever
Hiding our emotions seemed senseless this night
Our quiet reflections of deathly peril and plight
A child’s tears and compassion struck me as so sad
But their words brought me comfort, “Happy Birthday, dear Dad”
Judy Pope, 70
I was teaching first grade in Loveland, Ohio when the attacks happened. We didn’t have TVs in our classrooms so we couldn’t watch what was going on. I, however, had a 5-inch portable TV in my desk. That was used in the office so everyone knew what was happening. It was devastating! Our school went into lockdown. It remained that way for the rest of the year. I still have nightmares about that day.
Louis H. Pumphrey, 78, Shaker Heights
I’d have to say “mystified’ was my predominant feeling at the time. I couldn’t understand why such a horrific attack was carried out on us.
On that beautiful but awful day, around 11 a.m., I started to have a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach. I began thinking that perhaps my 24-year-old daughter, DeeDee, living in western Massachusetts at the time, had gone to New York City to visit her good friend and Laurel School classmate Jesse Lumsden, who was a graduate student in Manhattan.
I only half-heartedly started to punch in the phone number to DeeDee’s apartment in Northampton. I was afraid that if I got her answering machine, my imagination would begin to spin out of control and I would assume the worst. On the other hand, if DeeDee answered her phone, I would be immensely relieved.
I finished punching the buttons.
When DeeDee picked up and said “Hello,” I told her I had never been so happy to hear her voice. We talked briefly about the events of that day so far, then ended the conversation as we always do, saying “I love you” to each other. On that day, however, there were a few extra dollops of emotion in my farewell.
Chris Radtke, 56, Mantua
Sept. 11 was the Kennedy moment for my generation. Let me explain.
As a child growing up (I was born two years after JFK’s assassination) I always heard the line that everyone knows where they were and what they were doing when they heard that fateful news on Nov. 22. I didn’t quite believe them and often felt people said that because that’s what you were supposed to say. And then we lived through Sept. 11. And I remember it like it was yesterday.
I was teaching at Walsh Jesuit High School in the years before cell phones and social media and immediate connectedness were a thing. We first heard it was a bomb. Then we heard a plane had crashed and felt sad and confused about that pilot who somehow must have made a catastrophic error. Meantime, we were scrambling to hook a tv up to our cable line in the school to catch some news. Remember, this was a different technological age. When word came of the second crash, we all knew what was happening.
Being a history teacher, you would think my thoughts went right to the historical ramifications or to earlier examples of global terrorism but that’s not where my mind went. It went immediately to my children. My daughter was in third grade and my son was in kindergarten in Twinsburg. I wasn’t sure what they knew or what they were being told. I just knew I needed to speak to them to make sure the information they were hearing was appropriate, factual and not too alarming.
I hurried out of school that day to get home as fast as possible. I was at the bus stop when my daughter’s bus arrived and she instantly looked at me and asked, “What happened?” Her teachers were phenomenal that day and did not panic. She knew something happened (it was very difficult for any of us to put on a brave face) but she didn’t know what. We walked around the block. I tried my best to explain the unexplainable to a 9-year-old. I couldn’t find the words I needed but I think I did okay. My son, being so young, had that advantage in that he was fine with an explanation that went along the lines of “There was an accident.”
I next recall the endless 24/7 scenes on television of the smoking remains of those magnificent towers and the way the rescue workers struggled valiantly against impossible odds along with the rush to hospitals of eager New Yorkers to donate blood with precious few survivors to receive it. Those images and the questions they provoked still crowd my memory.
The following Sunday the churches were understandably packed. I was scheduled to read the first Old Testament scripture from Isaiah. I could barely get through “and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” And the enormity of the attack washed over me. It was totally unexpected in a very public setting. I wasn’t prepared for that reaction from myself and many in the congregation thought perhaps my family had lost someone or was personally impacted by the tragedy. That wasn’t the case. Holding it together that week for my kids, my students and myself turned out to be a task that broke apart that Sunday morning. I know I was not alone in those feelings at Saints Cosmas and Damian. It still brings me pause when I think about Isaiah’s words.
So, yeah, I no longer question anyone who tells me they remember exactly what happened on the day JFK was assassinated in Dallas. Sept. 11 is still a difficult day for me to teach about. But I think my students understand that the stories I tell of that day are part of history and a very personal primary source. Sept. 11th for my students is as much a part of history as D-Day or Pearl Harbor or Fort Sumter. For me, it’s a little more than that.
Sally Inglis Rich, 88, Beachwood
Early morning on Sept. 11, 2001 four of us ladies were on a tour bus to a Windsor, Canada, casino to celebrate a 70th birthday. A couple of hours into the trip our tour guide who was a retired army sergeant, told us there was a bombing in New York and Washington. I was shocked, called my husband in Beachwood and he sadly told me what happened. We thought that Canada would close the border and we would turn around and go home which is what the four of us wanted to do. Except our sergeant got on the mike and said, “We are going through to the casino.” We were so confused but we had no choice but to stay with the tour. The border was slow to get across but we made it to the casino. At this point we had no interest in gambling (even though others did) and we spent our time glued to the TVs to try to understand what was happening. It was a sad, confusing ride on the way home.
Jane Richmond, 74, Mentor
My husband and I were on a flight from Cleveland to Phoenix. We never made it there -- only as far as Kansas City, Missouri.
Tim Ringler, 66, Mansfield
I was not an employee of my dear friend who was a local optometrist, but I did computer and network support there in exchange for services for me and others.
A typical busy day in the optometrist office. First a patient came in and told us that a plane had hit one of the WTC Towers. Noted but nothing more than a news event.
Soon after an elderly patient came in for her appointment and said a second plane hit the other WTC Tower. Behind the counter in the office employees wrote off the second person’s information as “she is old and probably heard it wrong”.
Only a few minutes look later a family member of one of the staff rushed in with a 12-inch black and white TV to leave with her mother (on staff) so everyone in the Office could stay informed as by now they were saying that America is under attack.
One of the staff set up a rotation so one person (staff or patients) would constantly monitor the events unfolding on the TV. The optical work went on. But everyone present that could was glued to the TV. There was no waiting room and office area separate that day.
Every few minutes when more was known prayer huddles formed. Staff probably never spent more than two to three minutes on a huddle as office was still working on scheduled patients.
Richard Robyn, Twinsburg
As the newly appointed director of Kent State University’s academic/internship program in Washington DC, I was invited by a colleague to her morning class for my first eagerly anticipated occasion to tell students about the opportunity to live and study in DC for the spring semester. It was September 11, 2001.
When I returned to my office I heard someone say, “Something just happened in New York”. We gathered in the department lobby, listening to the radio. Someone pulled out a portable television set and we watched for the rest of the morning as the news - at first very confusing - became clearer and clearer as time went by. We saw the horrors of the World Trade Center destruction, the damage to the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. One of my students joined me and I recall him asking me “what do you think is going to happen now?” and my answer: “I’m not sure but I think life has just changed for us all...”
As we were going through those initial shocks, it slowly dawned on me that that might be true for me in a particular way as the new director of a program in Washington: Would we even have a program next semester? Would students - and maybe more importantly their parents - want to participate in a program that would be headquartered not more than a few miles from the Pentagon tragedy? As the semester unfolded and we signed up students and had orientations to which many parents came, it was gratifying to see how they responded: not only did we have a program but it was full. Students were eager to go to DC to learn first-hand about life as a professional there - made even more interesting after the trauma of 9/11. And their parents swallowed their understandable concern for their children’s safety. All seemed to feel that it was important - and not a little motivated by the thought that their lives would not be altered or diminished by terrorism.
As it turned out, it was a great semester. The students were intrigued to question DC professionals about their reactions to the day’s events; they learned in many personal ways about one of the most consequential days in American history and its impact on American government. And they all agreed that it was fortunate they were able to live, study and work in the nation’s capital mere months after one of the greatest tragedies in our history.
Robin Rood
Before the 9/11 we memorialize today occurred there was an earlier attack where we were in NYC visiting my brother, who lived there at the time. He is now deceased. But we were in a restaurant near NYU in the Washington Square area when we heard all kinds of noise like ambulances racing down towards the World Trade Center. The garage had blown up and we didn’t know what happened because all the local communication towers were destroyed. Later we spoke with a relative from home and they asked if we were OK and told us what had happened. But if you were in NYC you didn’t hear about it. It was an unsuccessful attempt from the terrorists so evidently they tried again on 9/11. On the actual 9/11, I was watching Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America after getting the kids ready for the bus for school and in disbelief watched all morning as the horrifying events unfolded on live TV. In my opinion it should have never happened.
When then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani asked America to come to NYC some weeks later we actually had plans to go, so we met family and went to the Carnegie Deli, and who should walk in but Mayor Giuliani and other state officials taking lunch and having a meeting not too far from our table.
Kathleen Rossman, 82, Rocky River
I was a travel teacher at that time and as I arrived to sign in at the school office the conversation was about an airplane crash into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. My first thought was of our son who would be working in a building across from the Twin Towers. News followed shortly after of a second crash into the second tower. I asked to be excused so I could go home and contact my family.
I returned home and attempted to contact my husband who was retired at the time and golfing only to find out he could not be reached.
Attempts to contact my daughter-in-law were not successful as she was taking a class in Manhattan. The children were in a preschool class.
Shortly after I had a call from another daughter-in-law who was attempting to contact our other son who was canvassing in Brooklyn for a friend running for political office. She was very concerned after learning about the towers that perhaps something could happen in Brooklyn also and about the family.
News finally began to come in around 12:30. Our son from New York had walked home to Brooklyn to check on his family and his brother (all safe). Our daughter-in-law needed to walk a very long distance home because traffic was backed up for miles.
Our son who witnessed the towers in flames was very saddened to view fire fighters of his age group arrive and courageously enter the buildings to rescue people. The fire fighters were from the station closest to his home in Brooklyn and some did not survive.
We were a very grateful family.
Kathleen Russo, 60, Garfield Heights
My daughter was almost 4 months old on September 11, 2001. It was a beautiful morning, so we were outside enjoying the weather., My daughter was sleeping in my arms, and my 3-year-old son and 4-year-old neighbor were playing in our backyard. We heard the loud noise of the plane at first, but then we saw it fly right over our house. It was so low, I could see the windows of the plane so clearly, and it looked as though it was skimming the tops of the trees. The sound woke my daughter, and neighbors came out to ask me what it was. I settled my daughter, and the boys went back to playing. It wasn’t too long after when my neighbor came out and told me to go in and put the television on, we were being attacked. I later found out that the plane that flew so low over our house crashed in Pennsylvania. We shouldn’t forget.
Deb S., 60+, Cleveland
I was at work that day when one of my co-workers said that something was happening in New York City. Everyone in the office rushed to our conference room to watch the TV there, and saw the devastation happening. Everyone was crying and couldn’t believe our country had been attacked. In a sad coincidence, University Settlement had a bus trip scheduled for families two weeks later to Washington, DC. The trip went on, and while going to Arlington Cemetery we went past the Pentagon and saw where the plane had crashed. It was one of the saddest days of my life, and I knew then our country would never be safe again.
Barbara Samuel, 70, Rocky River
My father died unexpectedly on Sept. 10, 2001. I was living in Dallas at the time, so I hurriedly made plane reservations to get back to Cleveland the next day and plan his funeral with my siblings. Sitting on the plane at the gate about 9 a.m., the weather was warm and sunny, but the plane didn’t appear to be going through the motions of leaving. Everyone sat waiting patiently. We waited, and we waited, and we waited some more. Then cell phones started ringing throughout the cabin. My sister called me from Cleveland, telling me my plane wasn’t going to leave as something terrible had happened in New York involving two planes. She said she’d keep me informed. After a while, the pilot informed us that the plane would not be leaving. We were to remain calm but we were to leave the airplane, leave our bags at the airport and go home immediately. He may have given an explanation about the planes crashing but I don’t remember what he said. The plane was very quiet as we grabbed our carry-ons and filed out. The concourse was very quiet. People were moving briskly but calmly towards the baggage claims and the airport exits. Announcements came over the public address system telling, again, to leave your luggage at the airport, leave the airport immediately and await further information. There was no panic, no hysteria. The airport was eerily quiet. What struck me at this time was what a sense of caring, politeness, concern the passengers were showing towards each other. People offered the use of their cell phones to others who needed to call family. People who parked at the airport offered rides home to other locals. People offered rides to hotels and car rental places for those from out of town. People hugged strangers and asked if they were OK. There was this great feeling of common concern, a coming together with a very scary, unknown happening. i remember feeling very sad but very glad to be in this country where such nice, caring and kind people lived. I was not able to get back to Cleveland for another six days. The funeral was a rather hurried affair. There were no flowers available as most of our flowers come from out of the country and all non-essential flights were cancelled. My one son, a college student at Tulane University, spent 15 hours flying from New Orleans to Cleveland, via Miami, Baltimore, Detroit. My other son, living in Brooklyn at the time, never could get out of the city for the funeral. He said he remembered waking up late on the 11th. He went outside in the street, not knowing what had happened, and wondered at all the paper flying down from the sky and covering the streets. HIs girlfriend, who worked at a bookstore in Manhattan, was on the subway, going to work, when the train stopped. She waited in the tunnel for hours until the train was able to back up to a station and the passengers could get out and walk home. If she had been on an earlier train, she never would have made it home. There, but for the grace of God.
Nicholas Santilli, 64, Rocky River
I remember stepping out into the hallway of Bruening Hall at John Carroll University after my 8:00am class and seeing a group of students and faculty congregated around a TV in the hallway. As I made my way to the TV I asked a colleague what was going on. He told me a plane flew into one of the towers at the World Trade Center. I turned to the TV and saw the second plane strike the other tower. There was an audible gasp from the crowd. I moved from the hallway and back into my classroom to begin my 9:30 a.m. class. I made the choice not to launch into planned lecture on the history of behaviorism and instead asked my students what they knew about what happened in NYC. Some saw the events unfold on TV while others did not know what was happening. We spent the morning discussing whether it was an accident or an intentional act. All I knew was that my class of psychology majors, most between 19 and 21 years old were either confused, angry, or saddened. The next several weeks I spent the first 10 to 15 minutes, sometimes more, discussing what my students knew about the events from 9/11. How they were doing, wondering if this meant the U.S. was going to war, and why this happened. I could feel their anxiety. They were going to be the generation most impacted by 9/11 and it saddened me that the events of that September morning changed their hopes and dreams for their emerging adulthood.
Adam Schlaker, 33, Chagrin Falls
I was in eighth grade. I went to the restroom, and the guy next to me asked if I had heard about the Pentagon being hit by a plane. I don’t think he said anything about “terrorists.” It may have seemed more like an accident, if I recall. But I was not sure I believed him; it was a very random thing to hear. When I returned to my classroom, others starting whispering about it, and eventually the teachers turned on our televisions to the news. We watched the second tower get hit. It was very surreal and scary. They made an announcement on the P.A., and we all basically just watched the news for the rest of the school day. I remember being particularly nervous when there was the report of that plane circling over Cleveland, or they rerouted it. I forget, exactly. But I was looking out the window, wondering if I would all of a sudden see or hear some big explosion. It felt like we were under a full-scale attack.
Mackenzie Schuler, 32, Olmsted Falls
I was in my sixth grade social studies class in Iowa. My teacher had turned on the TV for current events without knowing what was going on. Little did we know that we were about to witness the second plane hit the World Trade Center, live.
Tim Schultz, Bratenahl
9-11 was the most surreal experience of my life.
I was in Essen, Germany, setting up a trade show. It was about 3:30 in the afternoon, and the day was wrapping up when my German colleague tapped me on the shoulder and said that something horrible had just happened in the States. She said that the news was just breaking and suggested that we go to a nearby booth with a TV. While the television was showing the same famous visuals seen around the world, the newscast was all in German, which meant that I could understand very little. It was the most surreal experience of my life.
The rest of my week in Europe, including a planned business trip to the UK, as well as getting back home, all proved to be an adventure. But that’s another story.
Matthew Sedmock, 61, Akron
At the time, I was working in radio broadcasting in Silver Spring, Maryland
Genevieve Shantery
I was babysitting my now 22-year-old nephew, Quentin. His dad called and asked what we were doing and I told him Q was watching Teletubbies! He said, put CNN on and when I did and saw what was happening, I knew in my heart that all of our lives changed!
Elliott Stanek, 31, Dublin
I was an 11-year-old fifth grader on 9/11. I remember the early morning being pretty normal. Normal schedule, normal lessons. Nothing out of the ordinary. The first time anything unusual occurred was mid-morning when the principal came on over the school PA system and said something along the lines of “teachers please check your emails at this time.” My teacher went over to see what was going on, and I could see by her facial expression that it wasn’t good. It wasn’t just her either. Every teacher was visibly shaken. Students weren’t aware of it at the time, but the email they had received informed them of what had happened and gave specific instructions to not tell the elementary kids and just proceed as normal. This was probably fine for the younger kids in my school, but I was 11 years old and could definitely tell that something serious had happened. I could feel the pain in the air. It was a very scary day. At one point during the afternoon I was able to pull a teacher I was close with aside and ask him what had happened. He said he wasn’t allowed to tell me, but I persisted, telling him how scared I was and that I really needed to know. He eventually made me promise to not tell anyone else, but did inform me that planes had hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I was shocked to hear the Pentagon was attacked, but didn’t yet know what the World Trade Center was so I wasn’t able to create an image of that in my head. It wasn’t until I got home and saw the images myself that I began to realize the full magnitude of that moment. It was a horrible day and one that I’ll never forget.
Michael Stanek, 61, Avon Lake
I was in the office at our manufacturing facility when we first heard the news. There was one television in the facility, located in the training room. Everyone gravitated towards the training room and watched in horror as the events unfolded. Many tears were shed.
Dick & Vivian Staufer
We were in Bath, England. Had stopped at a B &B to get rooms for the night. Owners came out and asked if we were from America! Then invited us to quickly come in to see what was happening. What a shock for us. Next morning we went to the Bath Cathedral where there was three minutes of silence. Afterwards a newsman asked if he could interview us. Said he knew we were Americans from seeing our “fanny packs” and the white tennis shoes. We had big concern as to when we would be allowed to fly home. Turned out our trip was for three days later so there was no problem. Hope to never experience anything like it again.
Chris Stearns, 54, Hudson
I was at a trade show in Houston on a coach bus to the event that had a TV. We were all shocked. Silence and then anxious energy to get off the bus and learn more. I ended up lucky to have a colleague in Cincinnati that had a rental car and we drove home as flights were shut down. My wife was so worried.
Robert Sullivan, 52, New London
Clearly remember playing in the living room with my young children. Only thing is my memory has me in the living room of the house we moved out of in December 2000? Put that in your pipe...
Nelson and Mary Sundelin, 70 and 72, Richmond Heights
We have visited Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, for decades, usually both spring and fall. We were visiting that week. The morning of September 11, 2001, we were in the historic area when the news spread of what happened. Needless to say, the uniform reaction was shock. Our first thought was, we’re only 42 miles from our U.S. Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia. Within a few hours the Williamsburg Foundation suspended the day’s programs. At 5 p.m. a prayer service was observed in front of the original courthouse (dating back to the 1600s) with local police, fire department and military personnel. It was a subdued day. The rest of the week plans were carried out as much as could be expected. Visitors who had flown into the area could not leave because commercial flights were cancelled. Being that close to Norfolk obviously was comforting because security was high, including Navy fighter jets consistently patrolling the area. We normally took I-95 around D.C. to go home. This time, we headed West on I-64 to Charlottesville and then I-81 North. Every Sept. 11 we remember where we were, and when in the Colonial City we remember that day.
Ken Taucher, 73, Mentor
Yes, I remember the events of 9/11 like it was yesterday. I was at my usual place of employment that morning when my wife called me at about 9 a.m. saying that a plane crashed into one of the two twin towers in New York City. She happened to have the TV on when the news bulletins started coming in. At first, I thought it was an accident – a small plane hit the tower because its pilot miscalculated a turn or whatever. She then called about ten minutes later saying another plane (jet) hit the other tower and exploded, and the news analysts were suggesting both planes were hijacked and this was a terrorist attack. After about twenty minutes I received another call that the Pentagon was struck by jet. I’m thinking, “Oh my God, what’s going on”? Is this some kind of a Halloween prank like “War of the Worlds” back in ‘38? By this time most of the other employees had received similar calls. We were all in a state of shock, disbelief, and fear as we heard the news reports unfold. Like, where will the next attack occur and when?
One person had a small portable TV and we eventually saw the towers burning. It was on this TV that we witnessed the collapse of both towers and also learned of a hijacked jetliner crashing somewhere in Pennsylvania. It turned out that this last jetliner made a low pass over Cleveland when it U-turned back to Pa. (apparently heading for Washington D.C.). People had questions like “how could this have happened?” and “where was our airport security?” At about 10:45, the order was given from the defense department to ground all commercial flights for the rest of the day until there was no sign of further attacks. I believe this grounding lasted for several days.
When I got home that evening I saw the coverage on TV and was so enraged at these attacks that I wanted to join the military to help hunt down those responsible for the deaths of 3,000 innocent lives. But my age would have prevented that. President George W. Bush made his speech that evening about 8 p.m. in an attempt to calm a shocked nation.
Daniel Taylor, 76, Willowick
This day will be with me for the rest of my life. I was at work at the federal building on Lakeside Avenue. I worked for the IRS. On my third call, a man said, oh my God, a plane just struck the tower in New York City and he hung up. Two calls later another man said that the other tower in New York was hit. It was break time, and I found an employee who had a TV set and saw for myself what was going on. About an hour later, we found out that the plane that would crash in Pennsylvania was above us and finally our bosses let us go home. I tried to get hold of my wife to see if she was all right, and she was, but she did not know what was going on and I told her to put on the TV. She was watching our grandkids and wanted to go home. This day I will never forget just, like where I was when Kennedy was shot.
Evarts (Ev) Taylor, 70, Orange
My mother died on Sept. 8, 2001, in Chicago. Sadly, my brother and sisters and I buried her on Sept. 10. That evening I put my family on a plane from Midway back to Cleveland. I had an 8 p.m. departure to New York City to attend a sales conference but my flight kept getting delayed. We finally left about midnight and I arrived at New York’s Newark Airport about 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 11.
Tired, I grabbed a cab to the office with a workmate of mine about 8:55 a.m. He asked me if I’d heard that a small plane had just hit the World Trade Center. I said no and asked the driver to turn on the radio. As we drove down Ninth Avenue we cut across to Hudson and had a view south. We could see flames coming from the World Trade Center and we were both very concerned.
When we got to our office in Soho, our boss asked us why we came into work. We looked at each other and asked why. She said to go to the large window on the upper floor where we joined 15 others watching both towers burning. I was transfixed and in a kind of shock and continued watching until, the South Tower fell. We all groaned at once and some cried. My group and I were told to go back to our hotel which was up in the 50s, pretty far away.
We left and we walked east with, it seemed, everyone in the city. Everyone was walking quickly. I knew the subway had stopped but later I learned many were walking to bridges to get to their homes in the various boroughs. There were eight of us out-of-towners in our group. When we came to the intersection of Hudson and the Avenue of the Americas, I called the group together and told them to go on without me and that I was staying to see what would happen. I found myself completely unable to look away.
That intersection had a direct view of the burning North Tower and I stood and watched, transfixed and scared, with at least 200 others. No one made a move, we just watched for 15 minutes and then, at 10:28 a.m., the tower collapsed. There was a collective and deafening grown from all of us. We all covered our mouths in horror.
I walked back to my hotel trying desperately to get a phone line on my cell but it didn’t happen. I finally was able to make a call to my family from the hotel. They had been worried sick. In fact, my wife had gone to the middle school and the high school and picked up both of our children.
There was no air travel for days but on Wednesday, I heard the Metro North train would run on a limited basis. By some miracle I found a rental car available in Stamford, Connecticut, and was able to leave on Thursday. I was the only one in my group to get home because they all had to wait for flights.
Like many others, I watched the minute-by-minute footage of this attack over and over again during the next few weeks and really, for years after. My experience -- flying into NYC on Sept. 11, watching the North Tower fall, the chill I feel thinking about how much time I spent in the bookstores in the Towers as a publishing sales representative — has clearly become part of who I am.
Pete Titas, 43, Highland Heights
I’ll never forget that day and how life was never, ever the same after.
I was 23 years old and just recently finished the best 5.5 years of my life at Bowling Green State University. I was working as a computer programmer at Medical Mutual of Ohio in Beachwood. Sitting in my cube, doing my normal daily routine of work and listening to Howard Stern, the first word listeners heard on Howard’s show was that there was an explosion at the WTC. Howard’s immediate response was that it was a small plane. Once the second one hit, he immediately said it had to be a terrorist attack.
At this point in the office, everyone was catching wind about what was going on. One co-worker the same age as me was freaking out because she had a friend working in NYC and couldn’t get a hold of her. A number of co-workers ultimately went to a conference room and watched coverage. Shortly thereafter, the CIO of MMO allowed everyone to head home, as this was nothing we had ever seen.
Leaving work in late morning, I went to a friend’s parents’ house to watch more coverage. Replay after replay, you just couldn’t believe what was happening. Absolutely horrific what those in NYC and DC were going through, with limited to no coverage of PA. You just couldn’t stop watching it.
I made my way home where I lived with my parents. My mom still wasn’t home. She was a teacher at Ruffing Montessori and there was a coworker of hers who had a daughter in NYC. That coworker wasn’t able to get a hold of her daughter, so my mom decided she wasn’t leaving her side until communication was made. Thank goodness, that coworker’s daughter was OK.
I’ll never forget the look on my mom’s face when she walked through the door. My mom gave incredible hugs, but the one she gave both me and my girlfriend (now wife) will be one that I never, ever forget. My sister that lived in Columbus just happened to be in town that day and received one of those same hugs from her. That day, people in their 20s and 30s that never experienced any awful domestic tragedy, realized just how precious life was.
In the days that followed, the next scare that we all experienced was Anthrax. The environment was high stress all the time in the days that followed.
Unfortunately, 11 days after 9/11, my Mom died of a heart attack at the age of 54. Although she didn’t die in NYC, DC or PA, I believe to this day that 9/11 killed her. She was so heartbroken for those that went through this awful event. She stressed out about Anthrax scares and was so worried for her four children and one grandchild. The hugs we got from my mom on 9/11 were likely the last ones we ever received from her. Life was never the same from that point on.
Every year, I can’t take myself away from watching documentaries about 9/11 and ultimately become an emotional wreck. It puts me back in that place of how life was that day, and how it all changed after. That day changed the lives of so, so many people. Those families of the people on the planes, in the WTCs, Pentagon, families of those troops sent to war overseas, those first responders, etc. Never, ever forget what happened that day. I know I never will.
Diane Tusek, 63, Cleveland
I was at home when my girlfriend called me in a panic to turn on the TV. Her daughter, Charrise was a flight attendant in the air at the time. She told me the World Trade Center had been stuck by a plane. I turned the TV on, and saw the second plane hit the building. My heart sank. This was no longer a coincidence or an accident, this was intentional. We were being attacked. At that time we heard another hijacked plane was now flying over Cleveland, and we were all in panic not knowing what was happening next. My friend, Charlene, was terrified that this was the plane her daughter was on. The plane eventually went down in Pennsylvania. Luckily, her daughter landed safely My life changed that day. I am more aware, and appreciative and cherish each and every moment -- as we never know if it will be the last moment for us or for those we love.
Dan W., 35, Youngstown
I was a freshman in high school, living in Lakewood, Washington on McChord Air Force Base. My father was in the Air Force and had been since I was an infant. He’d been deployed many times over his career, but with peace largely reigning in the latter half of the ‘90s we were enjoying as a family his longest stay home to date. I had a few months before after begging and pleading gotten permission to stick the family’s old small TV in the bedroom I shared with my older brother. I, like many teens, was a habitually late sleeper by nature and my father had come up with a plan to get me onto a schedule by putting me on his time, waking up at 0500 to make him coffee. Part of my routine was turning on CNN while getting dressed. I remember the first plane had hit the tower moments before, and of course like everyone, I assumed this was some tragic aviation accident. And then live I watched the second plane hit, and even at 13 I knew that this was history of the worst kind unfolding. I ran into my Father’s bedroom and told him, “We’re under attack, turn on the TV!” He was already in his customary camouflage and combat boots for work, and with classic stoicism he told me to go and get ready for school, went downstairs, and sped off to his unit. Living on a military base is a strange existence to most civilians, but it is something akin to the fictional 1950s neighborhoods on TV. Many children, everyone knows each other. So us kids (I am one of five) gathered at our respective bus stops, hearing rumors about another plane hitting the Pentagon and another in Pennsylvania. We stood there looking up at the sky, wondering if there was a plane coming for us or our parents. With the small radios kids at the time coveted, we gathered around whoever had one to get the confused and garbled updates. Someone said, “The tower has fallen” and no one believed him. I remember most vividly the confusion and fear on the face of the bus driver, taking us off the base to our public school.
Brian Walsh, Euclid
The flashbulb memory is something many of us share about this day. I had just finished teaching my first period class when some of my second period students ran into my classroom and asked me to turn on the TV. Watching the smoking buildings, I could only think of Pearl Harbor and getting caught “with our pants down.”
Mike Weber, 49, Mentor
I was still lying in bed after having knee surgery, one month after getting married. I got a call to turn on the TV. I saw the one tower smoking and thought what a horrible accident. Then I saw the other tower hit and my stomach sank. I knew it was deliberate. I felt so helpless as I couldn’t move since my knee surgery resulted in MRSA. I watched over the next couple hours as both towers came down, and continued to watch and cry over the stories about the victims and heroes over the coming days.
Dick Whelan, 88, North Ridgeville
We were living at the Boardwalk on South Padre Island, Texas.I came back from an extended bike ride and my wife told me of the first crash. I t reminded me right away of the July 1945 crash of a B-25 bomber; the crew became disoriented in heavy fog during an approach to Newark airport, turned the wrong way and hit the 79th floor of the Empire State Building. Continued watching; then the second plane hit. Knew then it was intentional; I was a pilot with 45 years experience, which included 800 hours of instrument time in Marine Corps transport aircraft. The weather was clear. It was not pilot error. It was intentional!
Jonathan White, 61, Burton
I had a scheduled flight to Boston the morning of September 11. I had a week of backpacking in Maine planned. My dad dropped me off at the airport, the skycap (remember those?) checked me in curbside at around 9 a.m. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I went through security and into the main terminal with a little time until my flight. I strolled around and saw a shop that had a bank of TVs on the wall with a few people watching. I watched, trying to process what was happening, as the second plane hit the Towers. The silence, shock and fear set in as the confusion took hold. A few minutes later there was mention of a plane being detained at CLE. I was able to make a somewhat panicked phone call to Boston to let my friend know I was OK but not coming, from the kind shopkeeper’s phone at the Cleveland Museum of Art shop, as she was shutting down the store. Soon a public announcement was made that the airport was shutting down, no checked baggage could be reclaimed and the last RTA rapid transit train would be leaving momentarily. I caught the train, which stopped short of the Terminal Tower at W. 25th, where a bus took us to Public Square, which was a mob scene. I was able to catch a jam-packed bus from Playhouse Square up Kinsman Boulevard, eventually to Warrensville-Van Aken. I called dad for another ride home. I was able to pick up my bags a day or two later. I was thankful to be home, it was quite a day.
Reneé Whittenberger, 39, Akron
I was in the University of Akron civil engineering lab room, doing homework with friends. Of all subjects, the particular class we were studying was Theory of Structures. A classmate came into the room, noticeably shaken up, and turned on the radio. He said the Trade Center had just been hit, but I couldn’t contemplate what that meant. Hit with what? A plane flew into a building? That must be an accident. We listened to the radio as the next plane hit the second tower and we knew this was not an accident.
I did not know what that would mean for me, for the country, or for the world in the coming days. A friend somewhat callously joked that it didn’t mean anything to me, a woman, but - while pointing to the individual men in the room - it meant they were going to war.
Next came confusion and fear. We thought there could be more attacks. Knowing the importance of our Polymer Engineering program to the US government and military, we feared that our university was on the target list. People were running all over campus. Cell phones were not working. I struggled to find my boyfriend (now husband) who was also a student on campus.
Eventually we connected and drove home, where I watched the news until late that night. All while continuing that Theory of Structures homework. I wondered about the structural design of the towers and how their collapse might have been avoided. I cried for the thousands of people that had died - some of them in the background of the news broadcast, as they jumped from the windows of the burning building.
Gina Wilkolak, 32, Richmond Heights
I was 12 years old on Sept. 11, 2001. My seventh grade class had just come back from church and our principal instructed teachers of the older grades to turn on the TV. Unlike my best friend’s school who wouldn’t let the kids watch anything; we sat there the entire day watching the news. Some classmates were picked up by their parents while I stayed and watched the second plane hit on live TV. My mom was a nurse, and I knew she had homecare patients waiting for and counting on her so I knew she wouldn’t be picking my brother and I up early. We walked home from school like usual only for me to turn the TV back on the moment we got home. Sept. 11, 2001 went by in an instant but I can still vividly remember many things: teachers crying, classmates being pulled out of school by their parents, learning that one of the planes might have flown right over us before it crashed in Pennsylvania. But I really can recall the feeling of terror I had when going to bed that evening. I fell asleep on the floor of my mom’s bedroom while watching the news, crying and wondering if World War III had just started. No child should ever have to feel the way I felt that night and in the days after the attacks. My nephew is now older than I was when Sept. 11 happened and I wish he’ll never experience what we did that day.
Terrence Wilson, 45, Lakewood
9/11 occurred one week after I started a new job at a company I still work for. I always say the world went crazy a week after starting the gig. I worked in the mail room at the time and a co-worker stuck his head in the room and said “We’re going to war! They done blew up the towers!” Confused I walked out to the office to see people gathering around a co-worker’s desk where he had a small black and white TV with footage of the second plane crashing into the Tower.
Davis Young, 82, Bainbridge
On Sept. 11, 2001, my wife and I were nearing the end of a Mediterranean cruise and were in the port city of Kusadasi in Turkey. We would spend most of that day on an excursion to the ancient city of Ephesus, once the home of the Virgin Mary and an important site in Christian history.
Late that afternoon, we returned to the ship for what was to be the last leg of our journey. There, we crossed paths with another guest who asked if we had heard about what happened in New York that day? “A plane crashed into the World Trade Center.”
My immediate thought was it was probably a news helicopter or perhaps a commuter copter. Then, the man added, “Actually two planes crashed into the World Trade Center.” We returned to our cabin and turned on the TV. We were horrified to see the rubble through smoke that resembled what we have all seen in videos of a nuclear explosion. Destruction was everywhere and people were on the streets of New York heading in many directions to escape the chaos. Was this the start of World War III?
Soon, the captain came on the ship’s communications system to tell us we would proceed to Istanbul as planned, but then we would all get off the ship and be taken to hotels where we would stay for an undetermined amount of time. All planes had been grounded and we were not going home on schedule. We were assured the ship would not leave without all of us. We wanted nothing more than to get back on that ship with other Americans and head home, but that wasn’t going to happen for four days.
There we were in the midst of Istanbul, where we neither looked like nor dressed like local people. We stood out like a sore thumb. To say that time was unsettling is a gross understatement. Would we ever see our kids again? Would we be safe in Istanbul?
After a day or so, we began to venture outside our hotel. We found our way to the Grand Bazaar and a café to get something to eat. The waiter spotted us as Americans and told us several times how sorry he was the attack had happened. “It wasn’t us. We would never do that.” An American then living in Istanbul stopped to offer her home phone number in case there was anything she could to for us. Turkish people came up to us on the street or in the Grand Bazaar to express their sorrow about the tragedy in New York. Without exception, they were as distraught about what had happened as we were and they wanted us to know that. We could not have felt more welcomed in their country nor could we have been treated better. We will never, ever forget that and we will be eternally grateful to the good people of Turkey.
On the fourth day, we were taken to the ship and told we would be going back across the Mediterranean to Barcelona in Spain where our cruise had started. We left Istanbul and traveled to what we thought would be a brief stopover in Athens, Greece, for some provisions. We were informed some people would be getting off in Athens and that a plane would take them back to New York. Others would stay on-board until Barcelona. We were told that a list of those going from Athens to New York had been posted and we should check to see if our names had been included.
We were on that list and climbed aboard chartered buses to the Athens Airport. An American passenger plane used by the U.S. Army had taken troops to Bosnia and was being routed back through Athens to pick us up. On our way to the Athens Airport, we were told, “You have all been background checked. We know who you are.” That was a chilling reminder of the seriousness of the situation.
The plane had been reconfigured to carry as many troops as possible and I recall there were hundreds of us who made the flight back to New York jammed in, but happy to be going home.
Arrangements had been made to get everyone back to their hometowns from New York. We boarded our flight to Cleveland in the morning. I had a window seat on the left side of that plane. We took off and as we got to the Hudson River I looked out and saw the still smoldering remains of what had been the World Trade Center. I can close my eyes today and see that as clearly as if it was still 200l. I felt so blessed to be back in the United States of America heading home to Cleveland. But I knew the world had changed and would never be the same again.
Andrew Zajac, 30, Youngstown
I was in fifth grade and had just come from choir class and returned to home room. We had a substitute teacher that day and she had the TV on when we came back into the classroom and she had to try and explain to all of us what had happened and what was continuing to happen. We ended up watching news coverage for most of the rest of the school day. I remember a lot of my fellow classmates got picked up early, but I stayed until the end of the day. That was the first time that I had heard of the World Trade Centers and what they were, but I knew it was tragic and that a lot of people died. It was such an incredibly sad day, even for a fifth grader.
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‘I knew the world had changed and would never be the same again:’ Reader memories of Sept. 11 - cleveland.com
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