Do you remember?

It was a beautiful day, that day. The sun was shining, the sky was the color of a robin's egg, with white specks floating by. It wasn't that hot, a little breezy even, so sitting in the sun wasn't uncomfortable. Do you remember?

I had worked the night before, as usual. As I didn't get home until after 12:30 in the morning, I didn't make it to sleep until at least 1:30. I slept until 9:55, and then got up to watch Rosie. I went into the living room and turned on the television. Kathrin was cooking herself breakfast in the kitchen area and channel 7 wouldn't come on. I flipped through the channels, looking for a reason as to why the antenna would be out. I went down to channel 2, which was coming through, and then back up to 7. I couldn't figure out why the only channel that came through was CBS. I flicked back to CBS and found myself speechless. Do you remember?

I must have called Kathrin in to look at the tv. It didn't really make sense. The towers were only a couple of miles from our apartment, yet we hadn't heard anything. There, on the screen, were the images that none of us can get out of our heads, no matter how hard we try. We crawled out onto our fire escape and struggled to see something. We had a view that let us see just the antenna on the top of the trade center. We saw plumes of smoke billowing in the air, black and thick against the crystal blue sky. Do you remember?

I stuck my head back in the apartment, and watched the tower fall. When I stood back up, the antenna was gone from the skyline. That's when the frantic phone calls started. People had been calling us for hours, but the lines were jammed. We called our mothers. We called our friends. We left and heard messages like "I'm fine. I've heard from Jim, Bob, Sue and Joe. They're fine. Let me know that you're fine, too." Do you remember?

We decided to donate blood, so we walked to the local hospital. All of Jersey City was out on the street, searching for something meaningful to do. When we got to St. Francis, we were told that they weren't dedicating any staff to drawing blood because of the survivors. We were told to go home. Back to that place where the only thing to do was watch in horror. We only had one station at that point. The only station being broadcast in New York was CBS, because it's antenna was on the Empire State Building. Do you remember?

We watched the news. We watched a movie. We watched each other. Then, we watched as the ambulences started pulsing past our apartment window. One after another. Sirens screaming. If you looked out our back windows, you could see, maybe a football field away, the ramp to the Turnpike. The Holland Tunnel was closed to allow the ambulances the freedom to drive where they needed. That was when they thought there would be a lot of ambulances. Do you remember?

The first time I went into Manhattan afterwards was on Friday, September 14th. I got out of the subway at 47th and 6th and started to walk East. When I hit 5th Ave, I looked South. I had always been able to see the towers from there, a beacon , a compass letting you know where you were in the city. The sky looked like it had been ripped apart, like a person being taken out of a photograph. Do you remember?

For weeks afterwards, we were bombarded with the images of the missing. The Path station walls were plastered with posters with pictures taken of the people who fell that day. Playing with their families and smiling for cameras. While I wanted to move on, I was drawn to the humanity of those walls. Do you remember?

It's been 5 years and those images and days are blazed in my head. I heard on the news the other day that 95% of Americans remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard. Do you remember?