I hate this time of year. Today is just the start - 13 years ago my home was attacked. Maybe youve noticed that my email address is nyckid.net, and pretty much all of my social accounts are NYCKID or some variation of it. Why? New York City has always been and always will be my home. I was working in the cafe at Borders in Aventura when the 9/11 attacks happened. A few weeks earlier I had been on the phone with the cafe manager at the Borders in the south tower of the World Trade Center. I was planning on moving back up north and she said she always needed help, and experienced staff from other locations were always welcome. I wasnt there because my roommate search had fallen through. The next day my grandfather died. He had been declining for a while mentally, and we knew it was likely Alzheimers. My grandmother said they were watching the news coverage and he didnt understand that there was only the one attack, he thought it was happening over and over. He knew we had lived in New York a long time ago, and I guess it was too much stress for his body overall, and he just didnt wake up the next day. After work the next day I drove down to Miami International Airport and went to every airline counter that had staff until I found a way to get my mom from MIA to Athens, Greece for her fathers funeral. I could get her a flight to Montreal on Air Canada, and they said they could find her a standby ticket to London to meet her sister, then fly to Athens from there. She didnt go, her mom thought it was too dangerous to fly so soon after what had happened. She did visit his grave the following summer when she and my dad took their usual vacation to Greece. I still havent made it there. Things get worse in November. In 2008 I was in Orlando with friends celebrating our groups fall birthdays. I got a call on November 2nd from my mom telling me that my dad died while working outside in the driveway. My friends helped get me back to Ft. Lauderdale, driving cars in a caravan and stayed with me while my mom and I got arrangements together. I would not have come out of that as well as I did without their support. Dads birthday is November 23rd, which makes Thanksgiving just that much less fun. Can we just skip to January? *sigh*
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 00:02:51 +0000