I was sleeping that morning, because I was working nights at a car rental place at KCI airport. I was waken by the telephone, a lady was calling me to tell me I had the job working in the office at a plumbing supply house. Instead of just telling me that I had the job, she went on first to tell me about the tragedy that had hit our Nation. While I still had her on the phone talking, I ran to the living room to turn on the TV. I stood there in shock as I watched the news coverage and listened to her voice coming over the phone line. After she told me I had the job, and I could start the following day, I hung up the phone and stood there and cried in shock of what I was seeing.

My girls were at school, when the principal came over the loud speaker and announced that our Nation had been attacked and about the tragedy that had happened. School was closed after that and the children sent home, while the teachers all gathered in the teacher lounge and watched the news footage. My girls ran into the house crying and they both grabbed me, holding on to me so tightly as they cried so hard their bodies shook. We sat on the couch close together and watched the news.

I had to work that night so I had the girls go to their grandfather’s house to stay until I got off work. Even if they were in high school and stayed home alone while I worked, that night I was scared to leave them home alone. I got ready and left for work, I remember the highway being so empty, where normal days I would have been stuck in traffic for long periods of time. It was almost a scary feeling to see it so empty it sent chills through out my body.

When I was at work it was such a dead silence, an eerier silence that was so piercing to the soul. There was no one coming in to rent cars, our buses sat still all night, no planes flying over the building. We all sat and talked about what had happened that morning and listened to the radio for the news coverage. We didn’t rent one car that whole night, as the dead silence kept us on guard for possibilities of what could happen next. I remember driving home that night listening to the radio and crying for all the families, and being thankful that I still had mine to love.

The next night, I was called to come in early because it was a maddening chaos, which went on for the next three to four days. The phones were ringing off the hook, for cars to go out of state, so people could make it home. There were people driving in cars to our place from all over the country. Our out of state locations were calling to tell us that they had one of our cars. People were showing up in bunches, it was a nightmare to get them all taken care of. One thing I remembered, not one person bitched because the lines were too long, or they weren’t taken care of properly.

I witnessed a lot in those three to four nights that has held strong in my heart to this day. I witnessed total strangers, becoming friends, renting cars together, and splitting the costs to make it home to their families. I was told stories of total strangers, letting people stay in their hotel rooms with them, because the hotels around the airports across the country were packed.


I helped a father and his children get into his wife’s car so they could decorate it for when she got home. She was driving into Kansas City from Washington, with 6 other people, that she didn’t know. They had all made friends with each other at the airport in Washington, and together devised a plan of action to get them all home safely. I remember watching those little girls decorate their mother’s car, with goosebumps throughout my body, and tears about to flood out at any moment, that caused a huge lump in my throat.

I watched Americans become scared, terrified, sad, and lonely because of the tragedy that took place that September morning. I watched Americans become friends with each other, and there was no preference of race, religion, and financial status. I watched as people showed total strangers caring, love, respect and kindness.

 Americans stood together as one after that, becoming sad, fearful, angry, but they were still proud to be an American. Being American after that day meant that you lived in the land of the free, not where you came from, or the color of your skin, or the price of your house and car, we were all Americans.

I ask you, where were you when the world stopped turning?

The video below is a song, written and sung by Alan Jackson. To this day when I hear it, it brings tears to my eyes and chills down my back. Please take the time to listen to the song and watch the video. I think you will love it, and it might touch your heart in some way shape or form.