Where were you on September 11, 2001?

There is some documentaries about the above. The question struck me. Where were you on [tag]September 11[/tag], 2001? I know where I was. It is hard to forget.

I was seven months pregnant with Vincent (not named yet). Pregnancy was fine. It was during the school holidays. I watched the whole thing on CNN . At first, disbelieving because I thought it was some prank or movie. Then, Bloomberg and all the other news channel, including NHK were showing the news. (Yeah, I am very doubtful of CNN so I checked NHK ‘cos Japaneses don’t lie. 😛 ) I phoned my sisters.


Photo taken from here

We stayed through till late night, catching the news. I remembered Pentagon building and those voices over the phones. Each day, I kept my hope high. The New York Mayor was my hero then. Damn, I can’t even remember whether it was Bush or Clinton, I think Bush was with his daddy. I shed tears sometimes. I remember the multi religion funeral services. Jews, Muslims, Christians…..

So, each day, I was on the couch catching the news. Or rather, each night I was catching the news because New York was 12 hours behind us. One hospital remained in my mind was St. Vincent’s Hospital. Now that I think of it, probably I named Vincent after this? Hmmm..I can’t remember.

On September 22nd, school opened. I started driving the kids to school. That night, I had profuse bleeding. OK, ok, the question was Sept. 11, not Sept. 22. So, Vincent was born prematured at 28 weeks, and hence, my long, long, ardous journey.

Therefore, September 11, 2001 will remained in my heart because my son was born September 24th, the same year. It will be five years since that fateful day. My son would be five years old too.

Then again, the world changed since September 11. People turned hostile. Conspiracies theories abound. Nostradamus is something that intrigue me but I have yet to understand. My atm’s Italian colleagues talked about those signs in the Bible. Many lived in fear of the unknown. Many misunderstood the beautiful religion of Islam. We were all screwed. I still wonder why those terrorists have so much hate planted in them? And I seriously think that the real Americans are as inefficient as us Malaysians. Only Hollywood hype. FBI, CIA, craps…


(my son took this pic)

People died. People moved on. New babies were born. Widows may re-married. But most mothers will never get over it when they lost their children in the tragedy. They just learn to live and move on.

So, where were you on September 11th, 2001?

44 thoughts on “Where were you on September 11, 2001?

  1. If I’m not mistaken, That night I was in one of the Cyber Cafes in KL playing Counter Strike back in my Diploma years.

    Friend called and told me about it, then I double checked from Internet news sources.

  2. i was still in uni at that time and i was napping in my room until my mom called with the news at 9p.m. then i was glued to cnn until 4a.m…the memory of watching the tower collapsing live on tv is as vivid as it happened ystrday. i remember having a withdrawal syndrome that week. i cried everytime i saw ppl searching for their lost ones and worst, when cnn kept airing the last phone calls of those on planes. even the mamak whose stall i used to frequent sed “ah moi, jangan sedih sangat la”.

    just wondering lilian, were u in some way traumatised/shaken by the event that u gave birth prematurely?

  3. I was in NY and still in bed when my sister from KL called. Told me that a plane crashed into the twin tower. Turn on the TV and from my apartment window I saw smoke coming out from one of the tower. I thought it was just an accident until I saw the second plane went into the other tower. After seeing both towers fall, my heart sunk to my feet. It was very shocking and disturbing for me. I spent the rest of the day trying to call friends and family assuring them that I was fine but all the lines were busy. The whole city was at a stand still. No subway and bus service and all supermarket shelves were empty. My church had a service that night for the victims, their family and also the rescue workers that risked their lives to help save those that was still in the building.

  4. I was in boarding school studying until 9.15pm. Then we came down to get some water and heard the news. All of us were glued on the tele until the house tutor told us to “pergi tidur”…

  5. I was at home like a normal night watching TV with my family …suddently my ex-bf who not call for sometime…asked me to watch TV and said the New York WTC being attack by terrorist…switch to the news channel…damn..i was so shock and sad watching that…

  6. I was in my hostel room, studying when my frens came in and told me about they saw planes crashing into World Trade Center in the TV. The next few weeks, many of us crowded the TV hall watching news…something, in usual days…those news hours, only a few will be there. Very sad and tragic incident.

  7. i was still in primary school and just reached home from tuition when i saw on tv the news of a high building in NY burning…thought it was a movie at 1st but later on realised it was the news…was shocked and glued to the tv.

  8. it was i think during dinner time and i was at home. saw the pictures on tv but thought it was some movie before reality strikes.
    may the souls of all those who perished rest in peace.

  9. I was at home watching news and when i saw it (they were showing a footage from a bystander who happened to be there), i was like WTF do the news do April Fool on Sept. What can i say…the footage was too sick and unreal at that time.

  10. Wow, no one can forget ya? And Nicholas, you were in primary school which makes you still very young now hor?

    Nyonya – Got…it is on the side bar, with a little ‘Blogroll’ button. I pindah it to a page ‘cos mine list was too long.

  11. I was an hour away from NY. Turned on the tv the in the morning to news across the channels. Mcm tak percaya, and my heart just sinked. Called my mom to assure her that I am OK, and that night if I am not mistaken, martial law was upheld, even in ct.

  12. ya, i used to see the 2-coloured ‘blogroll’ button somewhere next to the ‘photo album’ button but now tarak wor. maybe something wrong with my com?

  13. nyonyapenang – Maybe Flickr where I stored the pic is down. These few days Streamyx is painfully slow.

    maR – Martial law tu macam kena curfew ke?

  14. was out celebrating me dad’s b’day with the family when we received a call from the uncle regarding the events. It got us glued to the telly for the next couple of days. i was 17 back then.

  15. no one will ever forget where they were that day, i was snoring till the morning when i fren rang me to turn on the tv, said something resembling independence day! then i went to work!

  16. Limteh with friends outside while we watched the news from the kopitiam TV. Went back home after yumcha session and continued watching CNN for the news, then the second building collapsed.

  17. i was still in jakarta for project. that night when i was on the way back from office, my wife sms me from KL that plane crashed into WTC (right after 1st plane and on CNN)

    we had quick dinner at one of the restaurant down at our apartment and wife sending 2nd sms that 2nd planes hit anather block of WTC and was told Pentagon on fire too…

    something really serious, we rushed back to apartment to continue…SHOCKING SHOCKING and follow the news till 0130 and continue the same day morning 0530….

    when the building collapsed…really SHOCKED!!!

  18. I was Std 6 that time, got the news in a restaurant when having dinner with family. It was around 8.45pm our time. That night I think too much and hardly can sleep. lol.

  19. Hi Lilian at that time I was at a friends house and was really shock at what had happen. It was a shocking thing that happen to all of us.

  20. I was in England packing up for good. Three days later, I flew back to Malaysia with all the tight security at the airport. It was unbelievable. I just finished lunch when my friend and I watched the CNN & BBC news and found out about it.

  21. hmm. will the movie be out soon?

    still it shows how incidents can change our world as we know it globally

    personally was at college when i first heard bout it

  22. kak lilian,
    Martial law took precedent over civil law during state of emergencies, such as the 9/11 incidents. Yes supposedly ada curfew, but I remember that day I worked, and I had to drive home around midnight. Not that many people were travelling on the expressway, and I was really pushing the pedal to get home soon…

  23. It was really a sad day then, I was on duty at Folkestone Marine Center (now harbour) …shaking my legs cos it was a nice warm day in the sun… infront of the submarine…

    And then the call came thru…and we were shocked when the BBC cut off our favorite TV channels to go live.

    More of them on my commentary http://www.azrin.net

  24. I remembered that day, came back from a holiday in Sabah, major upset with that holidays as they were some irritating people around that kindda spoilt the whole trip and made me irritated with them till this very day (not only with what happened at that trip but with incidents that happened after that and till this very day..of which some of my cousin know who I am talking about hehehe)

    Anyway, so, was sitting in the kitchen and enjoying Burger King that I bought at Damai Commercial Area in KK and my sis called up from KL asking me to watch TV as some crazy plane seem to have crashed into the WTC..so, turned on the tele and was like..whoa, pilot error or crazy suicidal pilots (i think that was around the time of pilot errors abounding and suicidal pilots during the early part of the year) but then, saw the 2nd plane hitting it and was like..oh oh..this is not right…and the rest..well..is history.

  25. For some reason or other most of the family were at home. Of course mum is the cnn junky… we saw the news on the first crash and I couldn’t believe seeing the second crash.. it was shown live wasn’t it… I was thinking like how can there be a cnn news/ camera crew at the right place at the right time… (haha summore conspiracy..)

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    Light a candle for all who lost their lives that day

  26. I was in KK (Sabah), in my sister’s home, just back from a beach outing. About to go off to sleep (it was around 11pm Malaysian time then), when my sister shouted for me to come down quickly, America’s under attack. Watching the planes hit the twin towers was surreal. It was like watching one of those Die Hard movies….any monent now Bruce Willis was going to appear, guns ablazing.

  27. Errmm… dun remember what i was doing that day at all… just remember receiving the shocking news… not stunned just bad memory.

  28. I was in Cherating holidaying when I tunned in to the news and can’t believe it. Wait…. that was the Diana tragedy. Now I can’t remember 9-11 tragedy. Oh, I know. I was sleeping like a pig. The next morning, hubby told me about it. And I go like this, “Huh? I don’t even know they have the tallest building in he world.”

  29. Hey, do you all remember the hoax at KLCC? Wah…drama sungguh, right?

    QV – Is cooking4STP a ‘she’? Aiyoh…all the while I thot is a he and now…hhmmmm…is she related to STP? How? So many kepoh questions. 😛

  30. aduh! Yalah, I’m a “she”. And yes, related to STP, the same way QuaVadis is related to STP. The “cooking”4STP came about because it was Christmas time and STP was coming over for Christmas lunch/dinner, so had to slave in the kitchen longer, cooking more food on account of my “extra large” guest. Hehehe. Ai-seh! So cukup info or not?

  31. Cooking4STP no no..its was CNY lah that you had to cook for him hhehehehe remember the extra 2 kilos of noodles so it becomes 4 kilos instead of the usual 2 jst because he was coming for dinner hahahahahahaha!!

    Aunty, yes..C4STP is a she, she’s the sister of KNB aka KampungNangkaBoy and we are all cousins of STP….oooh..one big happy family..stressing on the big hahahahahahaha

  32. That night I didn’t know anything but my friends were mostly glued on TV, they even managed to watched it live on satelite TV. Then the morning I woke up, first page on newspapers, damn shocking pictures and then next I went to college and everyone was talking about it.

  33. I was driving on the freeway to work when the radio reported a plane crashed into the WTC. I thought what a tragic accident. Then the second plane hit and I knew it was no accident. By the time I got to work the Pentagon had been struck and talks of a crash in Pennsylvania.
    A coworker had a TV she watched soaps during lunch. I told her to turn it on. We watched as many people jumped and the towers smoked and then finally came crashing down.

  34. i was at home sleeping, cos still schooling tat time. Was waken up by sis to the teribble news. I din’t know we had the same blog title yesterday ;P

  35. I was in Standard 6 that time.

    I remember I was sleeping, and then my mum suddenly got a phone call and woke me up saying that there was something I would have wanted to see… That time (now too… come to think of it)… I was quite politically interested…

    Victor

  36. Gosh i am not that surprised even it disturbing our world wide life .. since i am in much nervous and my heart up in down to enter my 1st job after graduation .. liao

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