There are certain dates that happen in history that we remember where we were and what we were doing when those moments took place. Things like when JFK or John Lennon were shot, the death of Elvis Presley, the car accident that killed Princess Diana, September 11… just to name a few events people remember exactly what they were doing and where they were when it happened.

As we approach the 20^th anniversary of September 11, I remember where I was and what I was doing as it happened as it was in Australia night time when the it all started. I was in bed and listening to a talk back radio station where the first initial reports broke where it was thought that a small plane had flown into one of the World Trade Centre Towers in New York City. After the announcer read out the breaking news, I fell asleep with the radio still on, never thinking about what was going to happen while I slept.

I woke up an hour or so later and I could hear voices on the radio but it they weren’t from the announcer on the radio station that usually covered the midnight to 6am shift. These voices came from external news services the radio station had tapped into and these voices were relaying the news from these external news services. As I listened to the voices, they unveiled the full horror of what took place in the couple of hours I had been asleep for. I really couldn’t believe what my ears were hearing and my brain in the early hour of the following morning couldn’t absorb the total extent of the reality of what happened and what was still going on in the US in both New York City, Washington DC  and that field in Pennsylvania in particular but also in the rest of the USA and Canada, being their closest neighbour as well.

It took me all my effort to not get out of bed and turn on the TV as I knew that once I did that, I was not going to get back into bed and go back to sleep as I would have been transfixed and shocked by the raw footage on the TV screen, so instead I listened to the radio for a while longer and then turned it off and went back to sleep or some pretence of sleep until the alarm went off.

When I did wake up a couple of hours later to get ready for work, I did put on the TV then and found myself overwhelmed by the footage of what had occurred. The sadness, the horror, the shock, the disbelief, the confusion and the despair on the faces on everyone appearing on the TV screen. Watching the footage of what had happened overnight with the recaps, I cried over the fact that I was seeing some of humanity at its worst with the terrorist act perpetrated against innocent and unsuspecting people but I was witnessing also the best in people who were helping each other with kindness and love.

During the day, all everyone talked about was 9/11 and being shocked by or trying to comprehend what actually happened. That night when I got home from work, every single TV station had coverage of 9/11 continuously airing throughout the evening and into the night. All day every single TV station had uninterrupted coverage from what happened on 9/11. As I watched and caught up on everything I had missed during that first day, I cried more tears for all the lives that were lost or forever had been changed, that terrible day. I cried that the innocence of the world was lost because if terrorism could impact on the USA, it could happen anywhere and I also knew that the world would be changed forever because of this heinous act of hate.

Over the next week as all there was to watch on TV was the continuing footage of the events of 9/11, I watched and I cried or smiled over those moments of seeing people coming together and helping or comforting each other. People who were strangers assisting one another in what would be their darkest and nightmarish time. I felt the miracles from the stories of survival but also the stories of how people were kept off the planes and away from the World Trade Center Towers that day because that day for whatever reason whether it was people were running late for work, being held up in traffic that morning, people having car issues, school kids delaying parents from leaving home at their usual time and go to work.

As I reflect on that day, 20 years on, may we never experience anything like this event ever again. It is a day that I will certainly not forget.