A Day That Still Haunts My Emotions

 

After seeing Liberty and Ellis Islands, we headed up to the site of the former World Trade Center site of the twin towers. The first memorial was being cleaned and wasn't operating but the second site was. Like everyone in my generation and older, I can still remember the events of that day vividly and I found the rest of my afternoon to be a fairly emotional one as I relived the events again.

The museum now in the basements of those memorial pools seen above was tastefully done and one of the rare museums where it wasn't geared towards entertaining kids and was instead, focused on preserving the history of a day that will live in infamy. Above is one of the "milk" walls meant to stop river ground water from infiltrating the basement of the twin towers when they were standing. The lighting was dramatic and appropriate for memorial.

The outskirts of the memorial are used to display large relics preserved from the tragedy like a portion of the large antenna that used to top one of the twin towers...

... or the remains of one of the first firetrucks on the scene who occupants all died attempting to save others.

I found myself more than once wiping tears from my eyes as I relived the events of the day. In the center was a large display of mostly relics from the day and stories of the people who lived and died. I mostly just walked through stopping only to listen to video clips of portions of the day such as communications from Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania. The other displays were just a little too overwhelming for me to take in fully. I ended up going back out into the larger item display area near the milking wall and just letting my mind roam over events of the day from memories while the rest of my family took their time and looked at everything from a day none of them were here to witness first hand as I did.

I thought about George Eric Smith. As we walked up to the site initially from our visit to Liberty and Ellis Island, the first name that caught my attention was that of George with a flower stuck in it. I wondered who he was and what the world might have been like if that day had never occurred. It turned out George Eric Smith was a senior business analyst for SunGuard Asset Management and was in one of those towers on September 11, 2001. He was raised along with two sisters by a grandmother in West Chester, Pennsylvania and had a three hour commute to work which he did every Sunday and Friday evenings, staying in corporate housing when in New York City on weekdays and going home to his sisters and grandmother on weekends. He was only 38 year old in 2001 and would never live to see his 39th. I imagine the world is poorer for his death most of the other 2,976 people who died that day with George. 

One other note on that day, as fate would happen, we arrived at the museum on the 23rd anniversary of the final day of clearing the site of debris and bodies. Above us, a ceremony was held as it has been held every year since May 30, 2002, commemorating that day and those that helped in clearing the debris to allow room for this memorial to be built.