Remembering 9/11

Today's the day everyone is remembering where they were five years ago. The day the world changed forever. We were so naïve on September 10, 2001. But that was about to change.

On September 11, 2001, I was living and working in Troy, New York, about 150 miles north of New York City. I was at my desk in the IT department of Troy Savings Bank, maybe on a help desk call, when suddenly our network administrator, who had his radio on, said, "a plane flew into the twin towers." Now, in Albany, just "down the road" on the other side of the Hudson, there are buildings which we locals call the twin towers. I thought he meant THOSE towers, and while concerned, just thought, a small private plane crashed, oh no, how terrible. When I mentioned this, he said, no, the World Trade Center towers. Suddenly it felt more serious. Then we learned the plane was a commercial airliner, what a tragic accident . . . word of a second airliner hitting the south tower . . a plane crashing into the Pentagon . . . another airliner was off course with an unknown destination. Our IT director uttered two words, "bin Ladin." I felt sick, my head was spinning, I truly, truly felt like the world was coming to an end.

Dozens of us headed to the human resources department, where a TV used for training was turned on. We watched and listened in horror. Word spread that the father of one our co-workers in the audit department worked at the WTC. We stood glued to the television, watching with disbelief as the first tower went down. As the second tower went down, I left the room on the verge of tears, unable to watch the tragedy unfolding before me.

That afternoon I had to conduct training with a new employee. I don't remember what I said or what we did. I was having a lot of trouble concentrating. I felt numb, absolutely numb, as did she. And I felt that way for the next several weeks.

My sister in Seattle, not knowing my co-worker in the audit department, but feeling she wanted to do something for her, made and sent a little heart pin with a band-aid on it and enclosed a note with it. I don't remember what the note said, but I remember giving the pin and note to my co-worker, explaining that my sister wanted to do this for her. She read the note and looked at the heart and started to cry, and I started to cry, and we hugged for a minute.

I felt as if I had lost a loved one, too.

In honor and memory of Louis F. Aversano, Jr.

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