9/11

On September 11th 2001 my newly married brother and his wife were jetting off to America for their honeymoon.  At the time of the terrorist attacks they should have been arriving in the country.  At the time of the attacks there was a lot of confusion over where planes were and we were being told an international flight was unaccounted for.  For over 5 hours we had no news of my brother and his wife's whereabouts.  We sat at home, trying in vain to ring emergency numbers, the mobile phones of my brother and sister-in-law, all to no avail.  Five hours of witnessing horrific scenes, the like never seen before in peace time, five hours of anguish and going through different scenarios in your head, wondering if there were more planes missing, wondering if they were OK, not knowing.

Then my parents got a phone call from my brother to say he was safe.  Their flight had been delayed and they had been flying over Ireland when their pilot was told he had to turn back.  They had no idea why, they actually thought their plane had some kind of engine problem.  When they got back to Manchester airport chaos greeted them.  Then someone told them that planes had been hijacked in America and deliberately flown into buildings.......they understood the chaos all around them and knew they had to call their families.

Ten years on we are thankful everyday that things turned out OK for our family.  Ten years on we are still shocked whenever we see images of that day.  Ten years on I still feel that same fear grip me when those images come on TV.  Ten years on I still feel so angry that so many lost their lives because of those fanatics.