REMEMBERING 9 1 1
Twenty-two years ago today I had returned to my office at the Vatican Information Service after some time off in the U.S. As the work day was ending, a colleague shouted at me to turn on the television in my office. What I saw, felt and heard in the ensuing hours was, I thought at the time, beyond my powers of description. How do you describe something when there are no words!
NDTV photo –
It took me 9 days to be able to tell my story – where I was when the attacks happened, what I felt and saw, how Italy and Italians reacted to 9 1 1, how the world reacted. That was perhaps the only time in my life I felt the world was truly a family – even though I knew that it would probably not last very long.
I’ve been riveted to some TV coverage this afternoon, just as I was for days, weeks and months after September 11, 2001.
Here is a link to what I wrote that September so many years ago. Entitled “Forever Changed…”, it includes a slideshow of photos from my visit a few years ago to Ground Zero and the Museum: https://joansrome.wordpress.com/2021/09/10/forever-changed-5/
For me, what we often refer to as “a senior moment” is not about forgetting, it is about remembering!
Joan's Rome 