I have written many words over those twenty years. I watched the horrific scenes on a TV in Davenport, Iowa with a friend who lived not too far from the Twin Towers. I stood next to a friend waiting for word on her daughter who was working at a D.C. area airport. I heard from friends who had to get off a plane at Washington National Airport and walk safely away from the airport. I was co-chair of a major genealogy conference taking place that week. Most of the words below were originally written in 2007 on my old blog. I couldn’t write yesterday. Just could not. The lives lost, changed, forever different. We need those hugs again. (Please get vaccinated and wear those masks so we can get back to those hugs someday.)
From 2007: Six years ago on 9/11, I was in Davenport, Iowa for the 2001FGS/Quad Cities Genealogical Conference. The conference was to begin the next day. A cadre of volunteers had been planning this conference for five years. I was sitting in my hotel room working on the first of the daily newsletters for that conference. I had the TV on but it was on mute. I looked up at one point and saw some pictures on the news that I figured were some archival footage. The telephone rang and it was Sue Kaufman, one of the conference publicity chairs. She asked if I had the TV turned on
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My mother and I had flown in the day before. One of our dear friends from Prescott, AZ and her mother who lived in Missouri was there in Iowa for the conference. FGS and the local host society took care of us conference goers. It was one of the better conferences I have attended in almost 30 years.