9/11 Remembrance

10th September, 2011

I remember 9/11 well for I had been in the World Trade Centre at Easter just before the suicide attacks in the Autumn. I had wanted to ascend the Empire State Building but there was a 4 hour queue. My impatience led me to the World Trade Centre where there was no queue and I was able to experience incredible views of New York. I did not know that I would never be able to have that experience ever again. I took many photos and here are two.

I heard of the attacks on the car radio as I returned to my office in New Walk Centre after a meeting I was attending. I along with many others assumed a small plane had accidentally crashed into one of the towers. At that time I had no idea of the scale of the disaster. As we listened to the afternoon news and it became clear that it was no accident, but the scale of the situation had not registered. I continued my day and went to various meetings.

It was only when I came back in the late afternoon that I realised the scale of the tragedy. I have always kept a few of my best loved books on my desk and My PA Hazel, had copied the words of John Donne and pinned them to my noticeboard.

No man is an island entire of itself; every man  is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;  if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe  is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as  well as a manor of thy friends or of thine  own were; any man’s death diminishes me,  because I am involved in mankind.  And therefore never send to know for whom  the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.