How Five Lives Became One Horror... - my response

"There are no words.  There are no words.  There are no words."

I think that about sums it up when it comes to September 11.  I will never forget what I was doing that day.  I worked for Citibank in the collections department.  It was my job to bother people for money, and today, I really didn't want to do it - though most days I really enjoyed my job.  I was on the phone with a man who, all at once, yelled, "WOAH!"  I asked him what was going on.  He said a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center Towers.  I had to orient myself to exactly what he was talking about.  I didn't know much about New York City, but I did know about those towers.  Then, the phone cut off, and everyone started standing up in their cubicle.  Apparently, Citibank decided it would be best to not ask people for money on a a day of an unprecedented terror attack on the U.S.  They told us to go home, we would have to take vacation.  Nobody stopped to argue about the unfairness of being forced to take vacation.  We simply wanted information.  We all jammed into the small cafeteria.  There were a couple of small televisions mounted on the wall.  We watched until the second plane hit.  Then we were finally shooed out and sent home.  My eyes didn't leave the television for the duration of the day.

Hearing these stories about people who lived it.  Who were close to it.  It's really moving.  Knowing that you'll never see your loved one again.  Being on the phone with your husband, thinking this was probably the last time you'd ever hear his voice.

I have to be honest, this wasn't my favorite story about 9/11.  I've read a few, and I've watched some documentaries where they connect the lives of some of the people who died.  I'm not sure if it was the jumpiness of it - like I don't think they spent enough time on each chunk of a person's story before moving on to the next.  I found myself being ready to be done reading with about a page left.

That's not to say that it wasn't very good still.  It just didn't grab me.  Sometimes there is no explanation as to why.