A haunting memory of 9/11

7 years ago, I arrived in New York city on September 10th 2001, ready for a series of meetings in NY and Boston. After that, my dad and I planned to travel to Vancouver to visit my sister there. Little did we know how our plans would be radically changed.

The next morning, we went out early for breakfast at one of the numerous New York eating places. We were close to the southern end of Central Park, on the Avenue of the Americas, or 6th Avenue. When we got out of the restaurant, I got a call from my mom on my phone saying "The World Trade Centre is on fire". I immediately thought it was the world trade centre in Singapore. Little did we know that the first plane had struck while we were in the restaurant. We quickly found a TV and watched with unbelief as the pictures unfolded onscreen about the NY and Washington strikes. We walked back to 6th Ave were we could look straight down about 4 miles or so to where the WTC was actually burning. As we were watching from quite a distance, our friend saw a big fireball. Little did we know that it was when the second plane hit. We were quite traumatised and went back to our hotel to just watch the TV. We tried to call home, but all the phone lines were not working. Finally I managed to connect to a local dial up internet number and sent messages that we were fine through that. Thank God for the resilience of the internet...

This year, in February, I went back to the 9/11 memorial when I was in New York for a conference. It was the first time I've been back since 2001. It was quite a moving experience as I watched, read and learned about what happened that day as we watched from 4 miles away.

This event has affected everyone in different ways. For me, being there on that day, made a special connection for me with the people of NYC as we have a strong shared experience.