Life goes on...

After my Mom's death in July 2001 I made numerous trips to NJ to visit Dad.  He lived in a suburb of NYC and continued to sell life insurance at Port Newark which is located next to Newark Airport.  On the morning of 9/11 I called Dad and told him to stay home.  It was not a good day for a man in his 80's to be driving near Newark Airport.  Fortunately, he had already made that decision himself.  It was such a scary day.  Scary and very, very sad.

People from the town I grew up in were killed in the World Trade Center.  No one I knew personally, but still it seemed to touch close to home.  There's now a memorial in the town park that honors those people.

I flew up in November 2001 and I remember how depressing it was to be there.  The grief was overwhelming since everyone either knew someone that was killed, or knew someone who knew someone.

I never wanted to see the World Trade Center site, but in November 2004 Keith went with me on a visit to NJ.  We took the train to Hoboken and then had to decide which train to take into NYC.  I had told Keith I didn't want to go near the World Trade Center site, but we inadvertently got on the train that went right into the World Trade Center subway station.  At the time I was really upset since this was exactly what I did not want to see.

We climbed the steps and the first thing we saw was the church across the street.  We decided to go over and get a closer look at the church and when I turned around I saw people pouring out onto the street from the same subway station we had just left.

It made me realize that life does go on.  I was glad that I got there.  There was comfort in seeing all the people hustling about making their way to work.  Things almost seemed normal again.

I remember on 9/11 getting the American flag out of the garage and proudly flying it in my front yard.  I did the same thing today.

I know there's excitement that Bin Laden is finally gone.  I'm very proud of those Navy Seals and all the service people they represent.  However, my excitement is somewhat tempered.  I'm glad he's gone, but I'm also wondering what will happen next.  Does anyone else feel the same way?