It’s twenty-five years since 9/11/2001. That day that ended so many lives and changed so many others. Everyone remembers where they were, and some will never forget the horrors they went through that day.
My story is pretty mundane. I woke to the radio telling me about a plane hitting the north tower. I was stunned enough to get out of bed before six a.m., something I never did, to go turn on the television. I saw the plane hit the second tower live. I could hardly comprehend it. It was a clear day with a bright blue sky. Whoever was flying that plane did it on purpose. In a split second the world knew it was terrorism.
I got dressed and went to work. The south tower fell on my drive in. I was all the way across the country on the Pacific Coast, but I was still shaken, as we all were. I was a hospital pharmacist, so I had medications to check for the morning cart fill. Our patients still needed hospital care. Later on, in my role as a drug information specialist, I pulled all the information we would need for bioterrorism attacks. Because no one knew what would happen next and where (and real anthrax attacks were ironically only weeks away). I lived near SeaTac Airport south of Seattle, WA. I was under the flight path, so planes were going in and out constantly in a normal situation. But not right after 9/11. The quiet was uncanny.
It’s hard to believe this pivotal event in history was so long ago. It feels fresh in my mind.
To honor those lost and those who worked so hard to keep the country going, I decided to read The Only Plane in the Sky – An Oral History of 9/11, by Garrett M Graff this week on the 25th anniversary. I was a little intimidated, as it is 592 pages. But I quickly discovered that it is far shorter, because a full one third of the book is the supporting notes – that gets me every time with one of these deeply researched nonfiction titles. It read very fast. Graff puts the recollections of huge numbers of 9/11 survivors, victims’ family members, government officials, and first responders in the time order of exactly when things happened. It’s comprehensive. It covers what happened on all of the flights, in and around the towers, the Pentagon, the White House, the Capitol, on Air Force One and the bases it landed at, and in Shanksville. The testimony is raw and pulls at your heart strings. I got chills reading so many of the passages. The plain documentation of the unprecedented occurrences was intense. I got the sense so many times that you couldn’t make this up. The level of detail that you just couldn’t imagine, but real people saw or experienced, is mind boggling. Things like the people enveloped by the cloud of dust clawing concrete from their mouths and eyes. Like the pilots of the F-16s realizing they had no missiles and might have to take down Flight 93 by ramming into it and calmly discussing which end of the plane they’d aim for. And like the doctor on Air Force One giving everyone a week’s worth of ciprofloxacin because who knew if the grade school the President had visited had been seeded with anthrax – and then one of the staff taking the whole supply at once instead of one daily for a week because they’d misunderstood the directions (as a pharmacist, I found that one pretty alarming). 9/11 may have started with hijackers who aimed to to the very worst to bring America to its knees, but the true story is thousands of people doing their very best to help others, often complete strangers. If you need a book to deepen your knowledge and sharpen your memory of the events, this is a solid choice. Five stars.
I will also give short reviews of a couple of other 9/11 related works. It’s been a while since I read them, but they are still great reads that touch on the events and are well worth your time this week if you’re moved to pick up something about 9/11.
The first is Thunder Dog, by Michael Hingson. It is Michael’s story of getting down out of WTC 1 after the plane hit with the help of his guide dog, Roselle. Michael is blind and he just happened to work at the World Trade Center. He tells his own personal back story of being blind from birth, as well as the events he experienced on 9/11. It is a powerful testimony of resilience. In a time when panic was all but inevitable, Roselle remained calm and did her job, helping Michael to the stairwell and safety. But the events are harrowing. This book provides a unique perspective. It is very educational about the blind experience and about how guide dogs work, as well as showing how the human-animal bond can deepen in tragic and frightening circumstances. Five stars.
The next is Homer’s Odyssey, by Gwen Cooper. Interestingly, this book also features an animal, blindness, and 9/11. But in this case, Homer the cat is blind, not his owner, Gwen. This is Gwen’s memoir about adopting a disabled cat. A black cat, too. Homer taught Gwen that despite being blind, he was just as capable of navigating life as a sighted cat. In fact, in one passage, Homer rescues Gwen from an attack that could have left her either assaulted or dead. Gwen lived in New York, not far from the Twin Towers, so part of the memoir does focus on her experience with the events of 9/11 and how they impacted her pets, including Homer. That section gave me a lot of anxiety. I can only imagine how scary it was to be in lower Manhattan at that time and not be able to get to your pets and verify that they are safe in your home. But overall, this is a heartwarming read. It has done wonders for blind cats in general – people reading it have learned that blind cats don’t have to languish at the shelter and face being euthanized simply because they are blind. They can have wonderful lives with their humans and other pets. I highly recommend meeting Homer and learning everything he taught Gwen about life and love. Five stars.
What is the best book about 9/11 that you’ve read? I’d love to get some recommendations. These stories need to be shared.
Thanks for reading!
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