We went surfing that morning. It was bright, sunny, decent waves. We’d paddled out before dawn. As we were standing in the parking lot getting dressed some guys were talking about the World Trade Center being blown up.
Huh? What are you talking about?
The World Trade Center. In New York. The news is saying that it was blown up.
I went home, got dressed and went to work. I don’t think much got done at Apple that day. By 10:00 am they had a news feed coming into the offices that we could watch on our computers. At that point, many/most Apple employees were watching the events of September 11 unfold.
I watched. I tried to get work done but I felt dead, unable to think. I watched as the names of the victims scrolled by. Three names caught my attention. Peter Hanson, Sue Kim Hanson and Christine Lee Hanson. From the ages and home town it was evident their were a family. I thought about being on the flight. I realized that at some point you would know that something was wrong. Once you understood that things were going wrong, there was a point were Peter and Sue knew that they probably would not survive the flight. What it is like to look at your wife and your two year old daughter knowing that you are living your last minutes?
The stories started to come out. Firefighters joking as they wrote their social security numbers on their limbs to make identification of their bodies easier. Ad hoc honor details forming each time a body was found as they dug through the rubble that was the twin towers.
That was a sad day.
Remember 9/11.
Remember FDNY.
Aloha
[posted with ecto]