memories

Rafi at Life in Israel posted a nice video. I suggest you watch it before you read this.

I was in Israel studying during those two terrorist attacks. I had been at Sbarros two weeks to the day before the terrorist attack. I tried not to frequent there but it just happened to be that I was there. I had seen my father's good friend and we stopped to talk. A week later I went back to NY. One week later, when I found out about the attack I was shocked. I was so thankful to have not been there just at that time. While I was in NY I started dating. At the end of the summer, my now husband had decided to take me to the World Trade Center. We didn't go up to the top. We stayed downstairs and sat at some nice tables that overlooked the water. At the end of that week I had gone back to Israel. I was in my room in the afternoon when I found out about the WTC. I couldn't believe it. I was in shock. We didn't have TVs but I listened to eveyrthing on the radio. I called my father to make sure he was okay (that was before the phones went dead). As far as I knew everyon was okay from my family and friends. We listened to the radio all afternoon and evening. We couldn't believe what had happened. Luckily I reached my now husband late that night. He had been on a train on his way to work. From the bridge the conductor saw the towers on fire. He pointed it out over the loudspeaker and everyone turned to look. My husband still remembers the scene. At that time he was traumatized from it. He used to be a social worker so his way of dealing with the trauma was to go to the site afterword and face the tragedy that happened there. Anyway, so our first thought was thank goodness that it didn't happen when we were there. His second thought was, "Too bad we didn't go up to the top. If I would have known that was going to happen I would have gone to the top of the towers one last time." I was just happy to be alive.

I didn't escape the terrorist attacks as narrowly as the man in the video but I still feel Yad Hashem. I definately was more thankful for what I had after that. I felt like I had a new appreciation for life. Hashem had ensured that I wasn't there at that time. What more could I say other than thank you to the One who runs the world.