Today I will write in remembrance. 8 years ago today seems long ago and yet, just a breath away at times.

My husband and I weren't married yet. We lived in Nashville Tn at the time and I worked for a home health agency. He worked nights at a Waffle House so he'd come in after getting off at 7, wake me up, I'd get ready for work and be out the door by 8 so I could be to work by 8:30, give or take with traffic. The morning started in it's usual rush with me getting up after hitting the snooze several hundred times. We didn't take time to turn the television on or anything, we just rushed out the door. We only had one vehicle at the time and if he had anything to do during the day while I was at work, he'd drop me off at work and take the truck.

Anyway, we piled quickly into the truck and down the road we went. My normal morning routine was to of course channel surf through the radio stations to find something on. We lived close to I-440 and we would take it to the west side of Nashville to the building that I worked in. We jumped on I-440 and in the time it took us to get there I'd resigned to listening to anything but talk because out of all of my stations, that was all that was on, admittedly not listening to what the talk was about, just hearing the talk and changing the station. I clicked on a local rock station 107.5 The River and decided I'd leave it there because I was in the mood for that type of music. It wasn't until my husband and I stopped to listen to what was going on that we heard the news. The first jet at this time had just struck the North Trade Center Tower.

I remember looking at my husband just completely in awe at the tragedy that had just befallen New York City. A plane had just crashed into one of the hugest icons in the country. My husband looked at me and I will never forget the look in his eyes when he said "This is a terrorist attack." I stared at him for a moment and shook my head in disbelief. This was a tragedy. How could this be a terrorist attack? Who would do it? It was that moment that the second plane crashed into the South Tower. I remember we were just getting on the ramp to hit I-440 from I-65 and I took a deep breath, looked back at him and said "Oh my God. You're right. This is a terrorist attack." I remember my first thought was to call my mama. Granted, she didn't live anywhere near New York City, but I had to call her. My husband and at I at the time didn't have the first access to cell phones at the time and there were quite a few questions. Was I going to be at work? Would they keep us working that day or send us home because of this aggressive and unjust attack on our great nation?

He drops me off at work where I'm told, true enough this tragedy has happened but working for home health, people still need their care and medicine. So I run back out and let my husband know, we do have a responsibility to our patients but that I would be getting off at normal time and we'd go from there. At work there was no real conversation. Everyone was in awe and everyone at their desks listening to their radio's or upstairs gathered around the only television we had in the building. Now at work, realizing my work phone was not to be used for personal calls and not really caring, I called my mama at work to talk to her. She said that at their job they were too all gathered around the television but that everything was okay. My next line of business was to call my daddy. He was at home and I knew it was a big chance that he would actually answer the phone because mom had said he'd worked the night before. He worked nights at the time all the time then. I tried anyway and of course, got the answering machine. Shortly, I too was plugged into my radio, not doing too much with my patient load except waiting for them to call in and talk to me as thankfully at the time, my patient load was pretty small.

I had been at work a short bit over an hour when the first tower fell. I heard it on the radio and immediately called my mama again. She said that she'd seen it on the television there at work. She worked odd hours going in at like 4 in the morning to stock inventory but she got off at noon and I knew in a couple of hours she'd be on her way home. I called the local restaurant and talked to my husband. We talked for a few minutes and he told me that he'd called and talked to his mom and dad, and of course, with them living locally we knew they'd be alright, but still we wanted to check.

The rest of the day in all honesty was a complete and utter blur. I think I talked to all of about 3 patients the entire day, one of which I remember lived in DC and actually got through on the phone to talk to me. When it was all said and done 5 o'clock took SO LONG to get there but by the time it did, I was so ready to see my husband and just go home and hold him for the rest of the night. All that mattered the whole day was just being with him and how much I loved him. We ordered in pizza that night for dinner and we did just that. I will never forget falling asleep in his arms that night, feeling terrible for the people that were going through everything like that, but so thankful that we lived in Nashville and not New York.

This was a day that made the nation angry at the injustices of a world that we live in for the sheer fact of how we believe. It's so hard for me to write about this even now without crying and thinking about the things that we take for granted every day. A long time ago I remember being at a church function and looking across the table at my aunt who was in absolute tears while they did the National Anthem. And I was just a kid. It didn't make any sense to me that anyone would cry over something as simple as the National Anthem. I now cry too almost every time I hear the National Anthem because of what it stands for. The tragedy in itself caused an uproar of patriotism in the country that in my opinion should have been there all along. We as a people need to remember what makes this country great! Freedom. Don't take it for granted. Because we are the only nation in this world that has it.

Today's blog is in remembrance of those who died on September 11, 2001. The men and woman, the fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers and friends. The police men, the fire fighters, the people just doing their jobs that day, the hero's that had no idea what they were in for waking up that morning and getting ready for just another day at work. To the people that died in New York, as well as DC and Pennsylvania. The brave people who refused to let the plane be taken over and died fighting for it. To the people that lived and are able to go on every day and remember what happened and live with that patriotism, and share it along the way.

We will NEVER forget.