Before I left New York City at the end of 1991, I used to work at the World Trade Center, South Building (or Bldg. 2), 74th floor. I used to work for Dean Witter Reynolds (DWR), now Morgan Stanley.
The World Trade Center, a group of buildings, situated in Lower Manhattan, was such a village in itself.
Here is my description of it.
Above ground, it looked so expansive, so magnificent. Always buzzing with activities. Seven days a week. Below ground, it was abuzz with restaurants, shops, several levels of garages, local NYC trains and NJ trains stopped and go to pick up and drop off thousands of commuters. And the elevators. There was none I could compare them with when it came to describing its elevators. Oh, the speed that they travelled to take people to their floors!
On the 74th floor, when you look out of the window to the streets below, you can see little ants (vehicles) move about. People were harder to distinguish below. You can see the Empire State building to the north; the Statue of Liberty to the south; the bridges to the east; New Jersey to the west. On stormy days, the clouds were below us. Wind would rattle the floor-to-ceiling windows quite violently. We always wondered how strong those windows were and couldn’t imagine what it would be like if any of them fell off. With the wind howling, you could hear it when you were on the elevators, or in bathrooms, as bathrooms were situated around the elevators.
Those were the days I remembered working at the Twin Towers. I had great memories of working with wonderful people, that a few even to this day I still have contact with. Fortunately for the department I worked at, all the people there were accounted for that fateful day. But what about the people from different departments we had (I had) dealings with? I always wondered if they also survived.
That horrifying day in 2001, I remembered getting ready to go home from nightshift work. It was a Tuesday. I can’t remember the exact time, it must have been around 0600 PST or slightly earlier. Eastern Standard Time was three hours ahead. Yes, NYC people were just coming in to work. A co-worker mentioned that something was happening to the World Trade Center. I remembered asking which one, since Portland has a world trade center. She looked at me and said, “No it’s the big one.” Oh, my heart skipped. We both went to the internet to watch. I had goose-bumps.
I hurriedly drove home. Once home, I frantically called my dear friend who was still working at DWR/Morgan Stanley. No answer. All day that day and several days later, I had to call special numbers, asking for people’s names that I know still working there. Alot of them were accounted for, except for my dear friend. I left voice mail, lots of it, on her home number.
Finally, the following week on a Friday, she called me. That was such a relief. Amanda gave me the rundown on who survived and who were unaccounted for; people’s account of that day; what the company future was to become, etc., etc. What was joyous amid this horror was she was safe. Her story was, on that eventful day, she was on a flight to France for her vacation. She did not know anything about the bombing until she landed in Paris. Overall, she stayed for the duration of her vacation but it was restive since she herself had to make calls upon calls. And who would somehow enjoy a moment when one’s future is gone, or had become uncertain?
Amanda also said how her boss, the department head, stayed behind to make sure that everyone in his department and the other departments on the floor, were able to leave before their building, the first building to collapse, went down. (How ironic, they fired him a few years later.)
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
This day forward from 2001, September 11th, all of humankind had been stunned to discover how evil and what level of evil man is capable of. On the other hand, the unity, compassion, love and grief that man is capable of, also came through. Such Ying Yang. Such is death. Such is life.
To all who died, who survived, their families, their friends, the heroes, the witnesses, everyone ~ let’s not forget them. Let’s not forget this day. Let’s bleed in memory of that fateful day for all the people affected first-hand by these inhumane acts. Let the fire of the memory of this day be rekindled every time, not to be snuffed, in the hopes that there will be greater peace born out of this unspeakable violence.
