This Is My New Jersey

Every year I am compelled to write about the attack over two decades ago. I have shared my memories of 9/11, the subsequent days after the attack, and visiting the site. This year, however, I want to share some thoughts about September 10th.

On Monday, September 10, 2001, people were going about their normal kickoff to the work week. School had just started the week prior here in Jersey. My husband and I were packing to move out of the upstairs apartment of my childhood home in Belleville to a second floor apartment in a private house in Nutley. The beginning of a lovely late-summer week. It was the type of weather we all want before we move head-first into fall. The day’s horoscope for Virgos (born Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “There are major upheavals afoot. … Even if your life is thrown into turmoil over the next 48 hours, something good will come of it eventually.”¹

Monday night, people prepare for work the next day. People like the father of a wonderful friend from high school, who thankfully made it home safely. And people like the sister of a colleague, Jeanette Louise Lafond-Menichino, who did not. Some get ready for an early flight out of Boston or Newark. Two colleagues, Jeffrey P. Mladenik, vice president of market development, Cahners’ Manufacturing & Electronics Division and Interim CEO, eLogic, and Andrew Curry Green, Director of Business Development, eLogic, both became innocent victims aboard American Airlines Flight #11 out of Logan Airport.

There were others that called in sick to work. Those that were planning on going into work late after an early morning doctor appointment. Still others that were stuck in traffic. Plenty of people in New Jersey went to bed later than usual after the Giants lost a tough one against the Broncos on Monday Night Football ends after midnight, which made some leave late for work.

All those “others” saved their lives. I can’t imagine how they felt as they received frantic calls from worried family and friends and learned how they narrowly escaped while so many others perished.

It was a plain ‘ol day on September 10th. Just like it was a plain ol’ day on September 11th… until it wasn’t.

It was a day America lost its innocence. A precision attack on civilians. An attack on the heartbeat of our military at the Pentagon. A final attack on either Congress or the White House. Those civilians on flight #93 fought back. They sacrificed themselves to protect people on the ground they never met. Most Americans hadn’t yet heard of al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

I recently saw a photo in the days after 9/11 from the original Giants Stadium that was new to me. It was of the cars in the commuter section; the owners of those cars never made it home.

It gave me pause. Similar to The Falling Man, it was no longer a huge catastrophic event. It was personal. Just like the memorial at 301 Gibraltar, it was a stark reminder that behind every car was a person who didn’t make it home.

So as I have said in the past, those of us who were alive and watched it happen, we have a responsibility to those younger than us. We need those words “never forget” to be real. Tell your story. Share your feelings. Make them understand what September 10th was like. What September 11th did to us. And resilience and love of country, and each other, we had on September 12th.

Tomorrow I will meet with other “ex-Cahns” (as we often call ourselves) at the memorial behind 301 Gibraltar. We will remember and share together. We will pray. The company may be gone, but we are all still here.

And we have a story to tell.