Thirteen years ago, that cover picture Ive had up on my wall was the last night of an age of innocence for my colleagues & me... I was a JFK based FA. That night, September 10, 2001 there was a bad thunderstorm & our flight to San Francisco along with about 30 other planes just sat out on the Tarmac waiting for operations to resume... No one would go back to the gate for fear of losing their slot to take off.. The cockpit door was wide open, anyone was welcome to check out the flight deck. I was Purser & flying with a few of my friends. Stephanie Hunt, Yarinael Donato & I got bored & started taking pictures... From where were sitting in that picture, we could see the rain pounding the airplane windshield & see lightening brighten the night thru the cockpit windshield... We didnt get to SFO until 2am... Pissed Off, we tried to get to sleep ASAP, as we had plans for that layover.... Needless to say when my phone rang at 6am, I answered thinking it would be the crew desk letting me know my crew & I were illegal to work our scheduled flight back... It was Stephanie YELLING & talking fast ordering me to turn my damned tv on... I was stunned & shocked....as Im watching the World Trade Center tower burn, I saw the second plane hit & started screaming & crying!!!!!!! One of our crewmembers had a suite on the top floor of our hotel, we all ran up there in our PJs & tried to understand what was going on in our beloved city we JUST left... As things unfolded & we all understood the magnitude of what was happening, we cried & cried & cried some more.. Airports started shutting down one by one... Unfortunately what we didnt understand was the international flights that were enroute to SFO were allowed to land. From where we were, we could see a 747 approaching & for a few minutes we thought San Francisco was about to be attacked too. We thought we were in danger.... Ill never forget Yarinaels cell was the ONLY one out of the nine of us who could get a call out because she commuted to Puerto Rico & her phone carrier was the only one not being jammed by frantic relatives... The rest of us couldnt get a line for a day or two... We ended up being stuck in San Francisco until that Friday... We deadheaded back to NYC... Tears everywhere.... We flew just on the periphery of the now smoldering World Trade Center... It was still smoldering after four days.... Its a struggle every year around this time for many of us!!! This career has served most of us very well! Its hard to walk away from such a unique career! Many of my family and friends tell me just how much they enjoy living this life of mine vicariously thru FB... I live this life the way I do because so many of my colleagues lost theirs doing what they loved!! I am haunted by the brand new Flight Attendant on UA flight #93 who is flown with just a few weeks before, Ceecee Lyles. She gave up a career as a Police Officer to see the world & travel... She was poised, friendly & loving her new job.... This time of year I usually make sure Im on an overseas trip to remove myself from the awful reminders. The constant reel to reel on the news of the Twin Towers collapsing onto themselves. I grew up taking class trips to them. Shopping at Century Twenty One under them. Knowing once the train got to the a World Trade Center stop, my stop for my job at the Bank Of Tokyo on Wall Street at the time was next.... Its hard. Im sharing this with my non-airline friends, my family, my neighbors.... We are incredibly strong & private folks. We tend to be the perky, friendly, caring types....but this day may have a slight difference to the norm for us all. Let us have that, a sweet hug or simply how ya doin, but thats all... Its a difficult day.....I HATE this day.......
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 05:40:04 +0000