Pregnant on September 11th

I remember September 11th, 2001 very clearly. I was eight months pregnant - very, very pregnant - at the time and generally moving slowly. Working in Newark, NJ at the time -- and running late on that particular day due to oversleeping (pregnancy fatigue) -- I was on Bergen Street, I think, waiting to turn left to begin hunting for parking. Z100 radio station was on, I believe. Sometime around 9:00am, one of the DJ's announced that a plane had flown into one of the World Trade towers. It wasn't known at that point that the hit was intentional. Probably just a terrible accident, was my thought.

Photo source: TheBump.com

Managing to find parking, I waddled along the sidewalk slowing making my way to my office. I noticed that people were standing, not moving, staring in the direction of New York City. The street is elevated enough that there was a view of the city, and the World Trade Center, even from 10 miles away in Newark. Smoke was pouring out of one of the towers. The plane! I thought. At the time both towers were still standing.

In the office, everyone clustered around a radio, listening for details. Word came through that the other tower was hit. The terrible realization: Oh my God, we're under attack! 

Photo source: USAToday.com

Our boss dismissed us shortly thereafter. By the time I left, one or both of the towers were down. Manhattan without the World Trade Center was bizarre to think about. Hadn't they always been there? And now... they were gone? Driving home, I suddenly remembered a high school friend -- also 8 months pregnant -- who worked in one of the banks at Ground Zero in Manhattan. Oh dear God, NO!!

As soon as I got home, I called my friend. Fortunately, she had overslept that morning too. Panicking when she woke up, she had been in such a rush to get to work that she didn't kiss her husband goodbye, she recalled. Her oversleeping saved her life, as both towers were down by the time she was on the NYC subway. After numerous tries, she managed to get a message through to her husband -- who by then was in a full-blown panic -- that she was okay. She was alive. Our kids were born a month later, two days apart.

Three days after the 9/11 attack, co-workers threw me a surprise baby shower at work. I was grateful, but confessed to a colleague that it felt like a strange time -- maybe the wrong time -- to be bringing a child into the world. A world that suddenly felt much less safe.  

October 2001, motherhood day 1. For better or worse, it's been quite the journey. Still is.