Christ Hospital had fired me 10 days before, and it was still a big deal in the press. Good Morning America had called me September 7 to discuss coming on the show the week of September 10.

That morning I was just getting on I80 to drive to Chicago to file a complaint with the EEOC when the first plane hit.

I was shocked and wondered if there was something ominous to this catastrophe but kept going.

When the second plane hit, we all knew these were no accidents, but I was halfway downtown and decided to keep going. The EEOC is in a building 2 blocks from the Sears Tower. I looked at the Sears Tower as I drove and imagined how awful it would be if it were struck. I didn't know that had been discussed as part of the plan.

The sky was so blue and clear, not a cloud in it. We live without noticing planes in the air above us every day, but it was noticeable when all flights were grounded that morning.

The EEOC is 2 blocks from the Sears Tower. I parked, and just as I arrived, it closed for security purposes.

I returned to the parking garage against a stream of people headed the opposite way to Union Station, near Sears Tower.

On my way I called my husband (from a payphone - not many cell phones back then), who worked downtown, and asked if he wanted me to pick him up. He said no, he was fine.

My car was parked on an upper floor. Because many were leaving the city by this point, I got stuck in a long, slow crawl out, furious that the parking attendant insisted on collecting fees. I yelled at her.

After I got some ways from the city I heard there was a United flight still missing and got worried. I stopped at a gas station and called Rich from a payphone to let him know.

I decided to pick daughter Daena up from high school. I thought she should be home as my own personal security precaution and to fully soak up this day of infamy. But I didn't want to do that while a plane was still unaccounted for. I didn't want her to watch tv and worry, or worse, see a Chicago catastrophe unfold before her eyes.

But by the time I got to Mokena, the plane had been accounted for. I picked up Daena, and we went home and all were glued to the tv for the next several days.

Our lives were forever changed. It had previously been inconceivable that a war against an outside enemy could be fought on American soil. But no longer could we luxuriate in the notion that America was secure.

Needless to say, everyone including me forgot about Christ Hospital for quite some time.

well I was homeschooling my kids and we were getting breakfast when I heard via radio that a "small" plane had flown into the WTC. But then when I heard a second plane flew into the WTC I knew something terrible was going on. We turned on our TV and watched the coverae while doing some school work.
Meanwhile I called a friend who called another and so forth and then we all started praying for all the people we felt were going to die that day.

And yes, I remember the day was very sunny and warm.

I had just brought my eldest to preschool and heard about the first plane on the radio. I watched the whole thing live on tv. The people rushing out while the firemen were rushing in....I called quite a few friends that live on the east coast and prayed. Went to a prayer meeting that night at our church and mourned together.

When we first recognized what was really happening we went in the CEO's office of the company I worked for and turned on the TV to watch the news.

I was with a friend from work...little did we know as we watched the buildings collapse that her brother in law, a transit cop, was in the building...

when I came home helicopters were the only noise you could here in the NY area..it was eerie and quiet. We all began calling people we knew who were in the city...

every time we have a really beautiful clear sunny day it still reminds me...

We lost a lot of people around here...praying for them and their families...will never forget

It was a beautiful day. The kids were watching the PBS show Arthur and I was doing dishes. I didn't even know about the attack until after the second tower was hit and my mom called me, thinking I knew what was going on. I turned the PBS show back on for the kids and turned on the radio.

I remember later I went outside and saw my neighbor and we were both so stunned we couldn't even speak. I knew a few people who were in New York at the time, not in or near the towers, but it took them almost a week to get home.

I was getting ready to watch the Ananda Lewis show (I think that was the show) because the guests were N'SYNC (I was a fan at the time) but ABC had the coverage of the attack (actually, quite a few channels had the coverage).

The sister of a parishoner of my Parish died in the attack, unfortunately.

I am so disappointed in you Jill, you're just another Republican apologist. I will stop reading your blog from now on.

Islamist terrorists do not exist. The religion is called Islam, its followers are called Muslims.

Ms, thanks for respecting 9/11 and posting such a relevant comment on this thread. :(

Islamist terrorists do not exist. The religion is called Islam, its followers are called Muslims.
Posted by: Cady at September 11, 2009 9:09 AM

and they are at war with the West. We just don't recognize it yet.

Unbelievable. MS, Cady. Go crawl back under your rock. Remembering the deaths of 3000 Americans is not being a Republican apologist. Muslim terrorists killed those people. Deal with the facts.

In other news (and I'm sorry that this isn't the best place for this) A pro-life activist was assasinated this morning while prayerfully protesting.

Muslim terrorists killed those people. Deal with the facts.

That was Cady's point, I'm pretty sure. They were Muslim terrorists, not Islamists. Of course there is a controversial push to linguistically differentiate in definition between Muslim and Islamist -- Islamists being Muslims who embrace Islam as a political ideology rather than merely a religion.

Personally I am fine with that as long as we also acknowledge "Christianists," those being Christians who view their ideology as being equally religious and political. But of course then you get into questions like, is a Muslim taxi driver who refuses to transport alcohol-carrying passengers an Islamist or simply a Muslim living out his beliefs even when those beliefs affect non-Muslims? Is a teacher who posts the ten commandments in a classroom a Christian, or a Christianist? Does it freaking matter? Terrorism is easier to identify, and Muslim terrorists are pretty different from Muslims, linguistically speaking. If you kill people to support your ideology -- religious or political -- you are a terrorist. Does it matter whether you view your ideology as religious or political; whether others view your ideology as religious or political?

I really hate linguistic bs. What point does it serve to say "they aren't Islamic terrorists, they're muslim terroirsts!"

Ok. We're still talking about the same group of people. I think interjecting false divisions is disingenous. We all know that not everyone who follows Islam is a terrorist, however these terrorists were followers of Islam. It doesn't matter if you call them Islamic Terrorists or Muslim Terrorists. Tomato Tahmato.

The important thing is to know that these terrorists are not representative of all muslims. I don't think anyone is arguing that they are.

Lauren, I agree.

Teri, I'm sorry; as someone else who lost many loved ones, I can sympathize. It's so strange to have the World Trade Center be this constant presence, at once as mundane as the voice of a recorded train announcement saying, "This is a World Trade Center-bound E Train," something you hear every day; and as heart-wrenching as the memory of a man -- a boy, two years younger than I am, now -- a friend who died saving the lives of others, who probably never imagined in his wildest moments of panic that the building would collapse on him as he ran back upstairs one more time.

What I remember most are the days afterwards. The sunlight where before there had been shade. Dust still in the air. The smell. The signs, which became memorials.

Today, I get uncomfortable with the "grief tourism," with people taking pictures of each other in front of what is essentially a mass grave, initially of people and eternally of an era; I understand it, I guess, but it creeps me out. But that's the majority of what I feel on most days when I walk past the site, or something. Yet there's something in the air that makes me introspective and quiet, in early September, and today. It's inescapable in this city; it's like a secret that everyone you see and work with and drink with has: not a question of whether we are remembering someone, but merely of who.

We talk, instead, about the weather. Today is miserable, rainy. It's a relief to talk about. The store clerk says, "Wow, it's really wet out there, huh?"

"Yes," I say. "But water dries."

"Ain't that the truth," he responds.

What a pity that commenters are hijacking this post...

I was living in South Africa at the time, it was around 3pm and I just got up. (I worked night duty at the time)
I switched the TV on and stared in horror at the towers collapsing and then phoned my sister and told her that the world has gone crazy...

I will NEVER forget.

Ok, here's the story so far on the pro-lifer who was killed.

A shooter shot and killed a man earlier that day and stole his car. He then drove that car to shoot the pro-lifer, Jim Pouillon.

http://www.connectmidmichigan.com/news/story.aspx?id=349160

They have yet to release the shooter's name.

My office is in a large bank tower office building. The lounge for the executive dining room was next door and we sat in there watching the tv and checking in occasionally. I also remember the OKC bombing. The bombing was on Tuesday. On the previous Sunday, our pastor called for an urge to have an all church prayer meeting Monday night. Then he asked for us to pray "God reveal yourself to America." Of course our church was filled on Wednesday night after the towers fell. We had just as much feeling of terror as others but we had a different understanding that God was still in control.
People turned to prayer but America did not repent. If America had looked in the mirror and repented, Jill Stanek would maybe not have this web site.

Thank you for this. I've written my own personal remembrance here:
http://www.ex-united.com/united-airlines/remembering-911-eight-years-on/

We must remember and pray for the victims and their families. The story of Deora Bodley (youngest victim on United 93) and her father is especially sad and touching.

Next, we as a nation must vow to never again let ourselves become something worse, for what we've suffered. If we do, bin Laden wins. We must unite again, and be "that shining beacon on a hill" for the rest of the world. God bless.

I was living in IL at the time, and four days overdue with our third child. We were at Kroger when we heard a radio announcement that the WTC had been hit by a plane. My hubby worked in print media at the time, so we went to his office to see if they needed him for anything. I remember one of his colleagues telling me she hoped I would have the baby that day so there would be new life celebrated in the midst of all the death. I replied that I was happy to wait a little longer so that he wouldn't have to share his birthday with such tragedy. I got my wish.

I called my parents in Aus and we watched it all unfold together, me on my tv and them on theirs half a world apart. I remember the stampede to the grocery stores and gas stations as panic set in, an then 48 hours later I gave birth. While I was in the hospital, the nurses kept sharing rumours of people being found alive in the rubble, which all proved to be nothing but people clinging to hope in the midst of despair and desolation.

I do not mean at all to diminish the terror of that day by remembering that as hellish as it was, every single day for thirty years before and every day since, even more innocent lives have been lost to terror of abortion. If only the lives of millions of unborn grieved our nation as much as the devastation of 9-11.

I had no idea what was transpiring the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 until I turned on the radio - just in time to hear a reporter say, "there is nothing where the Twin Towers used to stand. They have disappeared". I can't describe the horror I felt. I listened to the radio for a while, called a few close friends and remember saying to them, "we're at war". Our world had been turned up-side-down. My young daughter had just begun kindergarten and I remember thinking how in the world are the teachers going to deal with this? The TV stayed off until late in the afternoon because I couldn't bear to see it. I told my daughter that she was not allowed to change the TV channel away from her children's show but didn't explain why. Her innocence was too precious to be taken away at such an early age.

Since this post is entitled "9/11 Tribute", I'd also like to express my thanks to all of the emergency personnel who so bravely responded that day and to those who continue to keep us safe.

Well if America stop being wussies and quit allowing all these muslims into our country we wouldnt be having these problems. why do we allow radical muslims into this country. COMMON SENSE GET THEM ALL OUT!!!!!!!