You will not be surprised to see what my topic is for today. If you’ve read any of my blogs or read my September Newsletter. Yes, we must discuss the 20th Anniversary of 9/11.
I had just started my second year as principal at Riverside Applied Learning Center in Fort Worth ISD. In my author’s note at the beginning of ACT OF TRUST, Book 2 The Second Chances Series, I wrote about my experience and my wish to honor the survivors.
Author’s Personal Note
If you’re of a certain age, 9/11 resonates with you in the way Pearl Harbor did with the Greatest Generation.
We all know where we were when the planes hit the towers. Many lost loved ones or acquaintances, and we all have our stories.
My younger daughter and her husband moved to New York City on Sunday 9/9. As the principal in an elementary school, I’d arrived on Tuesday at my regular time, around 7:15 to get a jump-start on the day. My husband normally left later for his downtown high-rise to miss the traffic. He never went in that day after receiving a call from a good friend telling him to turn on the TV.
It was three that afternoon before I knew my daughter and her husband were okay. Trying to keep staff, kids, and parents calm in the face of what we didn’t know took my focus. I was one of the very lucky ones. My family was okay.
So SECOND ACT is a personal story to me. I admire those who’ve gone on after losing a loved one in this tragic experience. I can’t imagine it, though, as a writer, that’s my job. I hope I’ve honored their loss. I hope people find comfort in the happily ever after ending of the story.
I annually contribute, and I hope you will feel encouraged to send a donation too. Here’s the link http://www,911memorial.org
As much as it hurts I’ve started watching all of the remembrance TV shows. Because the hurt I experience watching these shows is miniscule compared to what those who were there or who lost loved ones and friends experienced. I know planes hit other locations, too–the Pensylvania farmland, and the Pentagon–but my connection is through my kids and NYC.
I also like to remember how the country came together because of 9/11. While we weren’t as divided before the event as we are now, still we were very divided and yet managed to overcome that to help and support one another. Kind of like we do when a natural disaster happens. We don’t discriminate regarding the colors of people’s skins, their religions, their sexual orientation, whether they are rich or poor, a white collar or blue collar worker, or any of those things that “normally” divide us. We just help. What a shame I had to quote “normally.” There shouldn’t be anything “normal” about our divisiveness.
The heroine in ACT OF TRUST doesn’t have the best of coping mechanisms. She shuts herself away for the entirety on the anniversary, almost as if she stops breathing, but then she starts up again the next day. She never flies. She isn’t even able to support her daughter who grew up to work at the 9/11 Gardens and Museum. But Kate goes on. She cares for her daughter and her parents. In my mind the survivors are similar to the women whose husbands were MIA in the Viet Nam War. These women were really in limbo. Married, but not married. In so many cases, no bodies to bury left them uncertain whether they were a widow or not. I was a teenager when I remember getting a sense of what they were going through, and I thought it was agonizing.
Would it help to know you weren’t alone in your agony? I don’t know. I do know it’s important to show our loved ones we care because we never know when the end will come.
Yikes! That was totally not the Happily Ever After you’ve come to expect from me.
Soooo….let me remind you of the fun Facebook event coming on September 24 Fall Into a Book Giveaway promises to be full of gifts and freebies from over 160 authors. I hope you’ll sign up and stop by to visit with me. I’ll be talking about Vacations and giving away a $10 Starbucks GC, and a pdf of TAINTED and VERMONT ESCAPE.
I’m also doing a Giveaway of SECOND ACT, Book 1 The Second Chances Series. on Prolific Works. Prolific Works – Second Act All the books are 1st in a series. If you haven’t read the book, this is a great time.
And lastly, you can win a Kindle Reader By following authors on FB, especially moi! 😊 https://AuthorsXP.com/fb
The WINNER from the September Newsletter contest is Petie Lowry, and she’s received a pdf of ACT OF TRUST. Sooo, now we’re a bit more HEA. 😊
Marsha R. West, Author 
I was folding clothes and watching the news when the reporter said there is a notice about a plane crashing into a tower. I went still. Then the second plane hit. I called Handsome who was out of town in a big meeting. The meeting was cancelled.
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Hey, Vicki. Did Handsome have trouble getting home? Had he driven or flown. I heard of folks who had flown out of town and ultimately had to drive to return. Sad and shocking time, but sure was great to see us come together at leas for a time. Thanks so much for stopping by. 🙂
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I was going to work when the first plane hit then a few minutes later almost at work the plane hit the second tower. Once inside at the breakroom/meeting room instead of a Morning meeting that Morning I remember we all sat engrossed/mesmerized and in awe watching what happened on TV. We were all in disbelief.
I still can’t believe that some of my co-workers didn’t think this meant we were at war of course they were a lot younger than me.
I Will never Forget.
My sister and some of her family came over and we grilled hotdogs, hamburgers, sautéed onions on the grill and my Brother-In-Law even made us Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream. It was Yummy.
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