9/11 was 19 years ago

[mummabear1967]

Can’t believe it. Remember it like it was yesterday.

I remember it coming on the ITV or BBC News, I thought it was a scene from a new movie until I quickly realised it was indeed reality.

Doesn’t it just sadden you that all those lives are over for nothing? It’s just heartbreaking.

[TheDogsMother]

I was working in the City and heard about it on a fairly flaky BBC news feed, such was t'internet in those days. We thought the first plane was a horrible accident then the second and third struck. At that point a plane flew in low heading for City Airport and I honestly though we were all dead. I'm not sure I've ever got my head around the sheer scale of the attack and everything I'm reading today has me in tears. What a terrible day.

[VinylDetective]

I was working in a press office. We got a tip off call from a local radio station, put the TV on and watched it with horrified fascination. I’ll never forget the collective gasp when the second tower was hit. Awful, awful afternoon.

[BarkandCheese]

It was my day off work. I’d just got home from the gym and my future DH rang me to say put on the news an airplane has hit the world trade centre. I imagined it as being a light aircraft and a horrible accident but then I put the TV on. As I was watching the second plane hit, I remember the feeling of utter incomprehension at what I was seeing, how could there be two accidents like this? Then the reports of the pentagon being hit came in and the reality that this was deliberate sunk in.

[yummytummy]

I had just had a job interview for my first ever job. It went well and after, the interviewer was making chit chat and I mentioned I had just come back from honeymoon in NYC and he said "oh i think a plane has crashed there" came home and sat with new hubby in shock that we had literally been standing on top of the towers the week before taking pictures. time goes by so fast

[MissConductUS]

It’s something that is still fresh in my mind...I can’t believe it’s been 19 years already

My DS was just a baby when it happened. He's in uni now, 6'2" tall and a lovely young man. And he has a sister who wasn't born on 9/11, though I was pregnant with her at the time. So much has happened.

[LucilleBluth]

I was 9 months pregnant with my just shipped off to uni DS1. DH phoned me from work and told me to turn the tv on...and the rest is history.

It really was the most unbelievable and shocking event since WWII.

[Springersrock]

It was my eldest daughter’s due date.

I was on maternity leave and was struggling to sleep so had a nap on the sofa. I remember waking up with a start in a total panic but couldn’t work out why.

Turned the TV on and initially thought it was a film

It feels slightly mad that it was 19 years ago, my daughter is off to uni next week - where did the time go?

[Dablikeacrap]

I remember walking home with my brother and my mum running down the road to find us crying her eyes out. Her family are all based in New York and work in the City 💔

[hoping4onlychild]

I was 9 years old. I remember watching it on the telly and thinking that it was a trailer for a movie. I also remember cuddling with my parents afterwards on their bed as we watched children of firefighters hold placards saying' have you seen my daddy' and feeling lucky that I wasn't one of the children whose fathers were buried under the carnage.

[Jenasaurus]

I had just arrived home from my part time job, it was my sons 10th birthday and I was wrapping his presents while watching Sky News when it came on. It was as a PP has said like something out of a movie.

My son appeared home from school later to see me sobbing in front of the TV. I didn't think of the impact on him at the time but later when reading his school communication log, he had written, I came home from school excited to open my presents to find my mum crying. He is 31 today and it will always be his birthday to me, but it is also a very very sad day for many.

[elp30]

I was living in Greater Manchester and was watching tv whilst my seven-month old daughter was napping in the front room. I got up to make myself a cup of tea and when I came back, the program was playing the footage from Sky about a fire at the World Trade Center. I thought it was a trailer for a film. I left the room again to do something else and when I came back, I was confused because the show was still the news segment. Then, the second plane hit the second tower.

I fell to my knees.

My aunt, her daughter, and her husband (my cousin and uncle) all worked in the towers. I frantically tried to call my family in the US but I couldn't get through to them. It was days before I could get through to them. Back then, hardly any of my relatives had email so I couldn't connect with them. I had to collect my other two children from school and all I remember was that I was a complete mess.

My oldest son was nine-years-old then and he tells the story that when the towers fell, I collapsed on the floor.

I finally heard from my family on September 13th. My uncle had a day off; my cousin took the morning off to take her daughter to school since it was the first day of school on 9/11 but my aunt went to work and managed to escape.

They lost many friends and loved ones. Another cousin lost her mother-in-law and another his ex-wife. My uncle refused to let my aunt work again and it took her 10 years to talk about what she witnessed that day. She still lives in Manhattan but has only gone to "Ground Zero" once in 19 years.

Trust me, I will never forget that day.

[NotanotherboxofFrogs]

I was at a wedding, we were in the church when it happened but as no mobiles then we were unawares of it. Heard a plane had crashed on the way to the reception but nobody took it in that it was so serious. It was only later in the evening that we all gathered in the bar and saw coverage, there was shock but we also were trying to keep a party mood for the sake of the bride and groom as while some of us saw snippets of tv, we thought it was some disaster film. It was only the next day that the seriousness of what had happened started to set in, over breakfast. I was physica physically sick when I realised how bad things were.

[Bunnymumy]

Was just watching an interview by Lundy bankroft on which be mentions that 2000 women die per year in america alone (think it was all of US not just his state but I could be wrong) at the hands of their abusers (or 'domestic terrorists'). Which is the same amount as died in the trade towers. So in these past 20 years, 40,000 women have been killed in america alone. As awful as 9/11 was, if we talked half as much about domestic abuse in the media as we do terrorism, chances are a lot more people would be saved.

[Bunnymumy]

Sorry if that was a bit tactless, but it puts a different perspective on things.

[CherryCocktails]

It's so strange to think what a different world it was then. No Facebook/Twitter/Instagram, if you had a mobile you could only phone and send short texts. No camera phones, no internet data, no instant sharing. Credit/texts/calls cost lots so you were careful if you had credit on your phone not to use it all.

An attack like that now would see everyone knowing about it quickly, millions of shared on social media and instant updates...

[FourTeaFallOut]

God it was awful. I was in a high rise building in Canary Wharf where a tonne of planes were circling until they were given permission to land and tapping the refresh button on BBC news like a lunatic. Any way, I was fresh out of uni and I was the first to break and told work I was going home, someone else could pay me peanuts in a regular sized building if they had a problem with it.

[Redcups64]

I was 14, at home alone sick and watching some trash television when a red strip saying breaking news flashed up....is never seen that before so switched over....didint really get what was happening at the time...thought it was a accident. Then watched live as a second plane hit and the images of people jumping was horrific!

[mummabear1967]

@CherryCocktails

It's so strange to think what a different world it was then. No Facebook/Twitter/Instagram, if you had a mobile you could only phone and send short texts. No camera phones, no internet data, no instant sharing. Credit/texts/calls cost lots so you were careful if you had credit on your phone not to use it all.

An attack like that now would see everyone knowing about it quickly, millions of shared on social media and instant updates...

That’s so true! Hard to imagine there was none of that back in 2001

[strappedup]

@Bunnymumy

Sorry if that was a bit tactless, but it puts a different perspective on things.

today is not the day for ‘a different perspective on things’

[mummabear1967]

@strappedup agreed. Domestic violence is disgusting but I fail to see how that is related to 9/11

[JadesRollerDisco]

It was one of the first (maybe even the first) time a news story gave my goosebumps. It still does now. The most recent was when the lockdown was announced. That feeling has not changed in 19 years. Complete shock, totally surreal and totally dreadful, and there on a TV screen

[Babz88]

Am I the only one who was still at school when it happened. It was my sisters 11th birthday and we watched it all unfold on the tv whilst eating birthday cake. It still breaks my heart today that it ever happened, it’s my sisters 30th birthday today ! How time flies

[BertieBotts]

I was a very young 13. I had never heard of the world trade center before. I didn't really process it at all, it was no different to me to any other "far away disaster on the news", I couldn't understand what made this one so different until the 10 year anniversary where I stayed up late reading articles and people's recollections of the day, then I grasped the scale of it. Since then I have wanted to watch some of the documentaries but I don't know if I'm brave enough.

It seems unbelievable.

[Chanel05]

I had started secondary school that week, I was in year 7. We didn't go to lessons that afternoon, each tutor group sat and watched it unfold on the news.

[Redrosesandsunsets]

Like others here I was expecting my first baby when I heard and saw it unfold, and wondering what kind of world I was bringing her into. It’s very sad to look back and I often think of the families and what they went through that day and every day since. It’s a huge loss. So much pain. Yeah I had been working in CW too and was freaked out about similar attacks. We lost a lot of peace that day around the world. Can we look back and say we got it back? Not sure. Anyway today I’ve been thinking of the families who lost their people ❤️