September 11th, 11 years ago today, was also a Tuesday.
I was living with my husband Josh, and our 9 month old son Toby in a 2 bedroom apartment in Orem. It started like any other day at the time. I woke exhausted as Toby had just started overcoming his endless hours of colicky screaming about a month prior and still wasn't sleeping well.
I got ready for work at the Sears Telecenter in Provo. My job title at the time was Training Team Manager. I believe Josh was working at Whitewater at this time, but he frequently changed jobs so I'm not sure.
I drove to Provo and dropped Toby off at my Moms on the way to work. As I walked into work I caught the first signs of something different going on. Half of the workforce was missing and people were milling around in little groups talking in a nervous buzz. As I became the freshest face I was quickly approached asked how I felt about what was going on. Confused I asked "What do you mean, what is going on?" Early details were sketchy at best. I was told that a building in New York had been bombed, someone else corrected that it was hit by an airplane and they had just heard that a 2nd building was just hit by another airplane and that this was no accident. Some said it was the Sears Towers, others thought it was the World Trade Center.
I went to the break room and joined a small crowd around a TV set. There was lots of speculation over what was happening.
About half of the workforce hadn't shown up for work that day, and there would be no classes to teach. Our center took calls from around the country for Appliance repair. We scheduled repair appointments, and September 11th or not, there were still calls flooding in for broken appliances. The call load was more then the present workforce could handle. In fact the only time I remember the call flow slowing to a crawl at peak hours, was 6 years earlier during the announcement of the OJ Simpson verdict. Just before and during the announcement, there was about a 15 min. time frame where calls only trickled in.
Not really having anything else to do, I decided to take calls, and I'm glad I did. It quickly turned into one of the most interesting day of my professional life. On September 11th 2001, I spent the day talking to people from all over the country. And most of them wanted to talk about what was going on and what I knew. I sat close to a call floor supervisor who kept me up on the newest news. Some callers were oblivious and just wanted their dang refrigerator fixed now. Others were stoic, and some were scared. Several still thought it was the Sears Towers and were asking if I was in danger.
The call I will never forget came from New York City itself. A woman in a very calm even tone was calling about her broken Dryer, but it quickly became obvious that the Dryer was not her concern. She explained that she was a nurse in New York City and her husband a New York City firefighter. They had small children and she worked nights while her husband took care of the kids, then they traded and he worked days while she was home.
She had just been finishing a long night shift at the hospital when alarms started sounding and emergency calls came flooding in. ALL medical personnel were desperately needed. She quickly called her husband who explained he was receiving emergency pages as well. They had no one else to leave the children with, and since she had been at work all night, the two of them decided that she would go home and he would head out to help. I think she may have been in a bit of shock as she explained that she had no idea if her husband was even alive, but that if he was, he was currently going through hell. She was trying to keep herself busy with household chores while events were unfolding. She said she didn't care when or if someone actually came to fix the dryer, she was just trying to do the things she would have normally been doing so she called me.
I tried to empathize and be of comfort, but mostly I just listened not knowing what to say. When I asked how those of us that were so far away could help. She said, that's easy...donate blood and get everyone you can to donate blood.
As the day continued, reports of other planes and other crashes came in. Some proving to be false. It was surreal and the only thing we knew for sure was that thousands of Americans were dying.
That evening I held my son and wondered what was coming of our country. I didn't want to leave him in his own bed that night. I remember that low planes gave me the chills for a while after that. The noise that had been mundane was now a sign of just how vulnerable we were. I remember popping some VHS tapes in and recording the early news reports that were full of confusion.
That's how I spent September 11th, 2001
I was living with my husband Josh, and our 9 month old son Toby in a 2 bedroom apartment in Orem. It started like any other day at the time. I woke exhausted as Toby had just started overcoming his endless hours of colicky screaming about a month prior and still wasn't sleeping well.
I got ready for work at the Sears Telecenter in Provo. My job title at the time was Training Team Manager. I believe Josh was working at Whitewater at this time, but he frequently changed jobs so I'm not sure.
I drove to Provo and dropped Toby off at my Moms on the way to work. As I walked into work I caught the first signs of something different going on. Half of the workforce was missing and people were milling around in little groups talking in a nervous buzz. As I became the freshest face I was quickly approached asked how I felt about what was going on. Confused I asked "What do you mean, what is going on?" Early details were sketchy at best. I was told that a building in New York had been bombed, someone else corrected that it was hit by an airplane and they had just heard that a 2nd building was just hit by another airplane and that this was no accident. Some said it was the Sears Towers, others thought it was the World Trade Center.
I went to the break room and joined a small crowd around a TV set. There was lots of speculation over what was happening.
About half of the workforce hadn't shown up for work that day, and there would be no classes to teach. Our center took calls from around the country for Appliance repair. We scheduled repair appointments, and September 11th or not, there were still calls flooding in for broken appliances. The call load was more then the present workforce could handle. In fact the only time I remember the call flow slowing to a crawl at peak hours, was 6 years earlier during the announcement of the OJ Simpson verdict. Just before and during the announcement, there was about a 15 min. time frame where calls only trickled in.
Not really having anything else to do, I decided to take calls, and I'm glad I did. It quickly turned into one of the most interesting day of my professional life. On September 11th 2001, I spent the day talking to people from all over the country. And most of them wanted to talk about what was going on and what I knew. I sat close to a call floor supervisor who kept me up on the newest news. Some callers were oblivious and just wanted their dang refrigerator fixed now. Others were stoic, and some were scared. Several still thought it was the Sears Towers and were asking if I was in danger.
The call I will never forget came from New York City itself. A woman in a very calm even tone was calling about her broken Dryer, but it quickly became obvious that the Dryer was not her concern. She explained that she was a nurse in New York City and her husband a New York City firefighter. They had small children and she worked nights while her husband took care of the kids, then they traded and he worked days while she was home.
She had just been finishing a long night shift at the hospital when alarms started sounding and emergency calls came flooding in. ALL medical personnel were desperately needed. She quickly called her husband who explained he was receiving emergency pages as well. They had no one else to leave the children with, and since she had been at work all night, the two of them decided that she would go home and he would head out to help. I think she may have been in a bit of shock as she explained that she had no idea if her husband was even alive, but that if he was, he was currently going through hell. She was trying to keep herself busy with household chores while events were unfolding. She said she didn't care when or if someone actually came to fix the dryer, she was just trying to do the things she would have normally been doing so she called me.
I tried to empathize and be of comfort, but mostly I just listened not knowing what to say. When I asked how those of us that were so far away could help. She said, that's easy...donate blood and get everyone you can to donate blood.
As the day continued, reports of other planes and other crashes came in. Some proving to be false. It was surreal and the only thing we knew for sure was that thousands of Americans were dying.
That evening I held my son and wondered what was coming of our country. I didn't want to leave him in his own bed that night. I remember that low planes gave me the chills for a while after that. The noise that had been mundane was now a sign of just how vulnerable we were. I remember popping some VHS tapes in and recording the early news reports that were full of confusion.
That's how I spent September 11th, 2001
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