It was a simple, normal Tuesday. I was woken up by the baby. She needed her breakfast and a change. She was just one and a bit. She was easy to get ready so I could wake up her two brothers. One was in his freshmen year of high school and had a bus to catch. The other was a third grader but home schooled.

I made us all breakfast, got lunch money together, and hurried the oldest on to the bus. The baby was placed on a blanket with her toys. I then set the TV to Fox’s morning show.

Every other weekday my son was assigned to watch the news, pick one story and write at least a paragraph about it. He did not get right on it because we first went through that days work. We would plan what he could do on his own and what he needed help with.

I cannot really tell you what other news there was that day. I really was not paying attention until I saw something life changing. It was at first just a glimpse of a plane out of the corner of my eye. When I turned my head and watched it, I physically felt the world tilt.

My son did not realize why tears started to fall. When the second plane hit my world grumbled. With the third and fourth I was numb. I had family in the area of all three sites. I had a cousin in the service. I felt with all that I was, that they were touched by this.

I explained what was going on to my son as best as I could. I couldn’t figure out how to tell him why people were jumping from a building when they knew they could not land safe. How could I when I didn’t comprehend it all myself?

When the towers fell so did all that the world was before. I knew nothing would ever be the same. This was America. It could not happen here. Right? We had lived through Pearl Harbor, High jacked planes, and Oklahoma City’s horror. They touched many of us but not in a way that shattered the confidence of the nation as a whole.

We could blame other countries for their lack of security for the planes from the past. Pearl Harbor was a horrid thing that happened in far off Hawaii during wartime. Crazy homegrown nuts caused Oklahoma City. None was on the same scale even as horrible as they were.