My story: Sent home from work

I was working at the La Center library. As I recall, it was a beautiful morning–not a cloud in the sky. I was there early trying to get a jump on the day.

A coworker arrived and yelled for us to get down off the roof. We weren’t sure what he was yelling about. As we approached, his frustration was obvious, but the cause was not clear.

The man had a portable television with him. Within a minute of it being tuned in we all watched in horror as the second plane hit the World Trade Center.

We looked up to the sky in unison and realized there were no planes around us. This was very ominous considering we were directly below the flight path between Portland and Seattle.

Work was shut down. I went home to my family. Together we watched the buildings fall, the spotty coverage of the Pentagon, and the crash site in that Pennsylvania field.

I was nowhere near the scene of these atrocities. I did not know anyone who lost their life that day. Still, all these years later, the pain we felt as a nation seems like yesterday.