Although Fall is my very favorite season, September is a very emotionally charged month for me. On Sept. 4th, 1990 my son was diagnosed with leukemia. In the next few days we learned that his prognosis was really grim. Those were some painful days. During this time, the children were returning to school My son would not attend that entire year, his junior year. He was able to attend a few special functions but they were few and far between. To this day when I see the first school buses of the new year I get overwhelmed with emotion. I know that there are many sick children who won't be attending. I know there are children who will never again return to school or lead normal lifes. Somedays I wish I could return to the innocent days before it was made painfully real to me that children get sick and sometimes die. I never can though and all I can do is appreciate that my son was restored to good health and leads a physically normal life today. Of all things in my life, I am perhaps most grateful for that. To those of you reading this if all you have to be grateful for is your healthy child, that is something that money cannot buy and something many people do not have. You are blessed..........................................................Tomorrow is also the anniversary, fifth of another day that is emotionally charged for me. To those of you who read my other journal you know what that day was like for me. I worked for a Fortune 500 company that had insurance for most of the victims of the World Trade Towers and the firemen of New York City. I was driving to work when I heard the news. I continued on to work, prepared to sign onto the phone lines when a woman from the next cubicle began to scream hysterically. Her sister was one of the victims that day. We were quickly told to go home as we were in a pentagon type building and they were afraid that perhaps other important company buildings might be attacked. I was on the fifth floor and began to feel anxious. As I went to leave I desperately tried to get my darling Rob on the phone. All phone lines were jammed, regular and cel phone lines. I debated whether to drive to where he worked but instead raced home. I never could get a hold of him and he arrived home hours later. I spent the next few weeks answering calls from widows who wanted to inform me that their husbands were no longer alive. These calls were so heart wrenching. WE had to hit the mute button and choke back tears as we talked to these family members. That day I realized that our company was not attack proof as I had always believed. I also realized what it meant to see Americans pull together. In our development I heard many stories of people in the streets and cooking food for others who were in shock. We didn't move to this development until the following May. One guy across the street lost his business as a result. He had a flag pole erected. Tomorrow he will be flying a special flag that has the names of the victims forming the stripes. I will never think of 9/11 and not choke up. Never. I am so glad that some of the bloggers will be doing entries on the victims. They deserve to be the ones receiving the attention. I pray that tomorrow the families will get through it. My next door neighbor's boss lost her son. Like most other families, she will never be the same. Tomorrow I can only fly my flag as a small tribute and say once again to the brave (including an Episcapalan minister I recently met who is dying of lung cancer.....she was at Ground Zero consecrating bodies and this was no doubt a result of her exposure) THANK YOU. God bless America, the land of the free and truly, the home of the brave.
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