I WILL NEVER FORGET...
9/11/2011 - I boarded the empty rail car at 5:47am on the train from Lindenhurst, Long Island bound for Penn Station, New York City.
As I sat there with a friend discussing what crappy wind and sea conditions were going to be and talking about the yacht we needed to get back to LI.
I was saying it was not going to be a fun ride. We quickly realized that the ride into Penn Station would be the hardest part of the journey.
We were the second stop out of the train yard. As we rolled into the next stop I was looking out the window and noticed the platform had more people on it then I have usually seen on an early Sunday morning train.
Many of the people were carrying flowers. There were also a lot of others that had faces and names printed on there t-shirts.
This was the start of a train ride I will never forget...
Station after station, family and friends of loved ones lost in the attacks on the World Trade Center were boarding the train to make there way into Manhattan for the ceremony of the 10th anniversary of the attacks.
The rail car filled up as we made are way into NYC.
We sat and listened to all the people telling stories of sons, daughters, wives, husbands, grandfathers, grandmothers, friends, aunts, uncles, friends and co-workers...that were killed that day.
Our hearts went out for the families sitting on that train, words can not describe what one feels.
For me it brought back the memories of standing on an island in the bay watching the towers burn from a distance with my young children. Watching the smoke rise from lower Manhattan. Trying to explain to them why someone would do such a thing. Calling friends and family to make sure they got out ok. The waiting, waiting to hear news about family and friends that have not been heard from yet.
I will never forget my kids coming home from school telling us about a classmates parent that was killed.
I will never forget the funerals and memorials masses.
I will never forget the days and years that followed.
I will never forget the men and women that gave their lives and the ones that are still fighting for our freedom
I WILL NEVER FORGET.... I will always remember
