9/11 Attack, 2001, by Fran Wallace

From MemoryArchive

Who: Fran Wallace
What: 9/11 Attack
When: 2001
Where: New York City, New York

As I was driving to work that morning, the radio announcer came on to say a plane had hit one of the towers at the World Trade Centre. There were no jokes, in fact, the announcer said it wasn't a small aircraft, but it appeared to be a large aircraft. The news was right off the wire, so there wasn't any more to report. I remember thinking it sounded a bit odd, but not much more. I suspected the aircraft would have been in distress and accidently hit the building - probably close to the ground.

Upon arrival at work, I rushed off to a major meeting. The news I had heard of the aircraft hitting the building was not something I felt worthwhile enough to bring up with my fellow meeting attendees. Our meeting lasted for two hours and none of us was aware of what was transpiring in the U.S.

After the meeting, I walked back into the office to be greeted by staff that were quite hyper. My secretary filled me in on what she knew about the situation, including several erroneous facts (for example, the Toronto transit system was closed down for security reasons). All the staff were looking to me for guidance, as all they knew was what had been related by their family members over the telephone. One of the staff lived quite close to the office, so I suggested she go home and bring back a radio. Once the radio was in the office and the staff had some time to listen to factual, current information things settled down. I encouraged all staff to contact family members to provide instruction and reassurances. I felt we were not in danger, as our small office was located in a residential area, in a former school. The staff were instructed to continue working as much as possible given the distraction. A decision about whether to hold a scheduled volunteer orientation that evening would be made later in the afternoon.

I called my daughter at University to reassure myself about her whereabouts and safety. She told me she had seen one of the first film clips of the aircraft hitting the building on the way to class and when she told classmates about it, they didn't believe her. I suggested she might want to watch the television coverage of the event as this was history in the making. I suggested to her that this was as important an event as Kennedy's assassination, something she had heard me talk about in the past. I was also able to reassure her that her Dad was on his way home, after his office had been released for the day.

I had another meeting downtown in the early afternoon, which I attended. I followed the updates about the terrorist attacks on the radio. I found driving to the meeting very difficult as all the staff in the major office buildings in the downtown core had been let go early because of security concerns. Pedestrians were everywhere and traffic was a mess.

Returning to the office after the meeting, we made the decision to proceed with the volunteer orientation that evening. Expectations for attendance were pretty low, so I provided minimum attendance guidelines for proceeding with the meeting.

I left the office a little early as I had a Foundation meeting to attend that evening. I dropped into home on the way to gather some needed meeting materials. I walked into the house and asked my husband if "the fire was out yet". He looked at me incredulously and said "no". Then he suggested I go into the study with him to see why. It was 4 o'clock in the afternoon and I was about to get my first views of the plane crashes and the aftermath. It was a rude awakening. I had no idea, up until that point, of the scope of the devestation. I immediately called the office to send everyone home.

Since I hadn't heard from the Foundation staff about my meeting that evening, I assumed it would proceed as scheduled. Upon arrival, there was some small talk about the terrorists, then we began the meeting. It was the strangest meeting I have ever attended. The Chair began the meeting by asking for a minute of silence to remember those that lost their life. He then began working through the agenda. Procedure requires that each application be formally tabled so it can be discussed. None of the 20 people around the table were willing to table that first application. It wasn't a conscious decision, it was just a general lethargy felt by everyone. The Chair had to push us to engage - not just for the first application -- but for the first five applications. After that, we began to focus and the rest of the meeting proceeded normally.

I finally arrived home at 11 p.m. I sat down and began to watch the TV news coverage. It was mesmerizing. I watched until 3 a.m. I was horrified on several levels - in particular for the aircraft passengers, those trapped in the towers and the emergency personnel who lost their lives just by doing their jobs.

In the immediate aftermath two things stand out in my mind. The staff member I sent home to pick up the radio, told us later she watched some TV before returning to the office. She told us of watching people voluntarily jumping out of the Towers to their death. She had a difficult time relating this without breaking into tears. I remember thinking how lucky I was that by the time I had a chance to watch the TV they were no longer showing it. The second thought developed as a result of watching a news show about the day. In the show, they interviewed a CEO who lost his staff that day. The only reason he survived was because he had a meeting outside the office that morning. As a CEO, I imagined how I would have felt had it been my staff. I could appreciate the other CEO's enormous sense of guilt and responsibility. The way he phrased it has always stuck with me -- his family grew enormously that day. All the family of the staff that died became a part of his family that day.

Looking back five years later, I still believe 9/11 is a watershed day. While the loss of life is devestating, that alone does not define the day. Up until 9/11 there had been isolated incidents of terrorism, usually within a specific location around the world. With 9/11 terrorism has emerged as an organized, global threat. To me, that is the historical importance of 9/11.