9/11 terrorist attacks in Northern Virginia, 2001, by Gg1goalie

From MemoryArchive

Who: Gwen Grewe
What: 9/11 in the DC Area
When: 11 September 2001
Where: Alexandria, VA

I remember this day. My mom was in Chicago on business for MCI, my brother was at MCI office at Tysons and my dad was at the Pentagon. I was welcoming my senior year at Bishop Ireton High school. I hopped into my carpool, talking with my carpool members with out a care in the world. I went to my first period class of Physics and then to advisory or homeroom. After advisory I walked into my religion class and sat down in a favorite desk of mine. The class had not yet filed in to the classroom and the bell starting second period had not resounded just yet. My Religion teacher Mrs Krogh walked into the classroom with purpose saying that Mr. Racek said to turn on the television. I looked up from the reading I was doing for that class and I saw that this plane had crashed into the Pentagon. Not really believing what I saw, I stood up and walked closer to the television screen and it sunk in. My daddy works at the Pentagon. Where is he? Where is mommy? Could mommy have come home early from her business trip on a plane? I began crying and shaking and my religion teacher hugged me. I feared the worst. I picked up the cellphone that I was not allowed to have at school and tried calling my mom, my dad and my brother. I would hear the message: "I'm sorry your call can not be connected due to the amount of people calling at this time. Please try again later." That was not something I needed to hear. I needed to hear my dad's voice i needed to know where my mom was. I went to the nurse's office along with the other kids at my school who's parents work in the Pentagon. I was past crying at that point. I started making cynical jokes which was my attempt at not accepting reality. I kept trying all of the numbers that I had. I tried calling my brother's number maybe i could get a hold of him. And maybe he knew something I did not know. Then I saw him at the door to the Nurse's office. He had come to get me and take me home. He told me mom had gotten through to him, on this special phone that MCI had given her, and told him to pick me up from school and take me home. I was upset that She didn't call me but I understood that my brother could come get me. We drove back home. It was a long an slow commute. Eeriely quiet. No one played music. All of the radio stations were monitoring the effects of the plane crashes. We were being updated sparingly with information because no one knew anything. I tried asking my brother questions but he told me to be quiet. I didn't like the quiet. I need some noise. The quiet was deafening! We got home and my brother shut himself in his room. I told him that I was going to visit a neighbor because I needed to know I wanted to know what was going on. I went to Ms MaryJo's house and listened to what she had to say and cried and hugged. Then I decided to head back up to the street to my house. As I walked out of her house. I saw a red car drop off someone in a military uniform at the top of the cul-de-sac. It was my dad and I started RUNNING! I gave him a hug and he told me that he had to make some phone calls. It turns out he was calling the people from his office to make sure they made it out okay. It turns out that one person from his office didn't make it out okay. My Aunt Kay called on the phone asking if everything was allright. I was not expecting to hear from her considering she was in Australia. She said that she happened to have arrived early to work and turned the news on an saw the reports from Washington DC and New York. My mom got home that night from Chicago around 9pm and I had my parents. Yet after that day I had lost them to the war on terror and to fight with them to remind them that I still needed them too.