Memories of 2 years ago...

The awful, horrible events of September 11th were half a lifetime ago for my youngest daughter, Bethany. She is four now and cannot really remember what happened back then. It was the day after my birthday.... a crisp, sunny fall day just like the one outside right now. Like so many others around the world, I watched in horror as the television played and replayed the footage of the planes hitting the towers and the horrifying sight of them falling to the ground.

Nick , as a teacher who was aware of what had happened but trying not to let the kids know until events unfolded more, was on duty outside when he suddenly noticed how many huge planes were coming in for a landing across the river at the airport. We don’t normally get the larger 747 planes, but so many of the flights crossing the ocean needed to get out of the sky as quickly as possible. Flights from Canada, the US and overseas were being diverted to airports like ours.

By the early afternoon, our city had been transformed. Knowing that travelers would want to see what had happened and keep up on events as they unfolded, one local electronics store had huge screen televisions set up at both the airport and at our city coliseum, which had been turned into an emergency shelter to hold the passengers from the 18 planes that were forced to land in Moncton. Calls for volunteers and food had gone out on the radio stations and in the first few hours, while many flights were still being checked to be sure there were no security risks on board, there were more volunteers at the Coliseum than stranded passengers. In true Maritime fashion, quilts and pots of chili or chowder were being donated before there were enough people to take comfort from them. A loving touch amid all the shock and horror.

The next day, the skies were eerily quiet. Volunteers to billet families were needed and we put our names down, especially since we had all the “baby stuff” that some stranded International family might need. We did indeed get a family with 2 daughters, but when we went to pick them up, we discovered that the girls were teenagers and the family was from Toronto. It didn’t matter one bit!! We could offer them more quiet and comfort than the noise and bustle of the emergency shelter.... and their story was no less heart wrenching because they were Canadians. The family had been en route to Newfoundland for a funeral, but when air traffic controllers began to add up the number of International planes bound for North American destinations that wouldn’t have enough fuel to reach larger centers like Toronto, Halifax or even Moncton, they diverted the flight from Toronto to Moncton. We had to watch and try to offer what comfort we could as the day and hour of the funeral for Art’s father passed and the ceremony went on without them there to say goodbye.

From those horrible events, so much good emerged in our city. Lifelong friendships were forged that are still kept up to this day. One family moved in with neighbours so that a Dutch couple on their honeymoon could have a bit of romantic privacy in their host’s house. Two teachers that Nick works with took a day without pay to load up their vans and drive a convoy of Americans to Bangor, Maine, about 5 hours away. Many of them were eager to get back into their own country. International flights had been told that when the skies opened again, they would have to return to their starting point rather than go on to their destinations. American passengers heading home from Europe just wanted to get Home. We couldn’t know what it meant to have our country attacked... we only knew how to meet horror with kindness and try to offer comfort to those who were stranded. It was a wonderful example to my older daughter that while you many not be able to stop something horrible from happening, you can do what you can to help in the aftermath.

My birthday on September 10th will always be followed by memories of that September 11th, even as time goes by. In many ways, it is hard to believe that it has been 2 years. In other ways, it seems like just yesterday. I choose to take the best of what I learned, to always be ready to help those who need it more than I, into each day since then as my own memorial.