I still cry about 9-11. At the time, I lived next to LAX, in El Segundo. The silence (from having grounded the flights) was DEAFENING.
I personally asked two businesses to lower their flags to half staff...one was the local Post Office, and the other was a BMW repair shop. Both of them were very kind to me, regretting that they hadn't done it yet, and lowered the flags.
Everytime I saw a flag (even regular ones that couldn't be lowered to half-staff), I lost it. I saw the videos, I lost it. This is three years now, and I lost it. It's happening again. I'm sure I'll feel similarly when 41 passes.
I still do, too.
And sometimes when I look at the pictures of WTC, I have to REMIND myself they are gone..........the horror!
Then we went to an office supply store, where over the loudspeakers, they announced the national moment of silence. Everyone in the store, including my 3-4 young children & me, stopped in their tracks and bowed their heads for a minute or two. The bindery man was bending over his computer monitor. Two clerks were hugging & sobbing.
The Old Navy store was closed over the lunch hour so their employees could attend local prayer services. I'll never forget the feelings I had that day.
Today we are generating some more memories for the bittersweet days ahead.