CityView Magazine

publisher's note Remembering 9/11 W here were you on September 11, 2001? I bet you can remember it well. I was on a US Airways flight headed to Charlotte to go to Louisville, Ky. My plane landed in Charlotte but we stayed on the tarmac forever without any information as to why. After a long period of time the captain finally announced that the Presi- dent of the United States had declared a national emergency. That was the beginning of an eventful day. My day started off bad. My flight left from Raleigh/Durham airport that morning and I was late leaving home and forgot my cell phone. I was so late leaving I missed my flight and had to take the next one to Charlotte. Without my cell phone I was completely in the dark as to what was happening in the world. It didn't take long before several of the passengers had gotten information about what was happening in New York on their phones. My heart sank. My youngest son Bob (who went to be with the Lord five years later) worked on Wall St., which was very close to the twin towers. As the news came in people were greatly exaggerating the conditions in lower Manhattan. We were told that all of downtown was on fire. I started to panic, only think- ing the worst. With no cell phone I couldn't find out how Bob was doing or what was happening. We had been stranded on the tarmac for about an hour and still no information on Bob. A very kind flight attendant rec- ognized my panic and came over and prayed for me. She also got another passenger to lend his phone to me so I could make some calls. I was able to reach my other son Hughes that lives in Wilmington. To my relief he had just talked to Bob and found out he was safe. Bob had tried to call me but he got no answer since my phone was in Fayetteville. Bob's office was on the 42nd floor at 40 Wall Street. and he actually witnessed the second plane fly into the building from his office window. When that happened everyone left his building immediately. Bob ran down 42 flights of stairs and then ran as far as he could away from lower Manhattan. He witnessed the awful tragedy of people jumping out of the burning twin towers as he stopped to catch his breath after running down the stairs. After several hours the plane finally pulled up to the Jetway. There were thousands of people wandering around the airport not knowing what to do. At the time I was a member of the US Airway Club and went there to meet my office manager who had not missed the first flight and was there ahead of me waiting. People were crying and in total panic about the events occurring. I knew their feeling because I was that way only moments before I found out my son was safe. But it was still frightful. The people in the club became fast friends as we discussed ways to get out of Charlotte. All the taxis and rental cars were gone already. Several of us came up with a plan to rent a limo and go to a nearby hotel and form some plans from there. We were able to get our luggage and headed to a hotel in the South Park Mall area. We got there and then rented another limo to take us to our cars in Raleigh. Half way there we heard that all the airports were closed and no one was allowed to enter. So we talked the driver into taking us to Fayetteville and boy was that expensive. The irony of that day was I met a man from Wrightsville Beach and he was one of the people that went to the hotel with us. I have seen him twice in the last ten years and one of those times was at a recent tennis tournament in Wilmington. It turns out his son and my grandson are great tennis playing friends. What a small world. This issue is dedicated to remembering that day in our his- tory. To watch a video of my son Bob explaining that day to my grandson, go to BobWaren.com 12 | September/October • 2011

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