I was living in Brooklyn, a newly wed to my born and raised in NYC husband. He worked for NYC transit, and had just gotten home from working first shift. I was upset with him for something so he was in another room and I was in the bedroom watching TV. I kept seeing the first plane hitting the first tower, on all the channels, however, I wasn't slowing down changing channels long enough to know what it was about. Cause in general that sort of thing doesn't interest me. I mean I have enough problems with out watching them daily on TV. But, after channel after channel had the same thing, I decided to stop and see what was going on. Then I told my husband to come and see what was happening, just as we were saying how could this be a accident look how clear the skies are, and they are right by all that empty space (over the water) it just doesn't seem like this is a possible accident, right at that very moment the second plane hit, another tower and my husband said calmly we're being attacked this isn't a accident......
A few seconds later his mother called, and asked if we were at home, we said yes, she breathed a sigh of relief, and then we asked her where she was (she worked very close to there, as a nurse!) she said she was sick that day so had decided to stay home. Another sigh of relief for us! His father was at work but came was released right away, at the time he was working near Harlem as a electrical construction worker, working on the train tracks that goes to JFK now, so not right by the towers but still in Manhattan.
A few minutes later we smelled the smoke and fire, my husband kept saying I was burning something, and I kept telling him I was NOT! It was the fire from the towers. When they crashed/collapsed our apartment was full of smoke and ash, outside the window papers and ash were falling from the sky like it was snowing them!
The last thing I heard on TV was we were on lock down and not to go any where to stay in the house unless it was a emergency, and we would be stopped by the military if we left the house. That the roads needed to stay clear for all the emergency workers. A few minutes later the TV went out, (it was shortly after the second tower collapsed, but not right away) from that point on for several days we would no longer have local broadcast as the signals were all being transmitted from that second tower (which it surprised me we got to see that and it still was broadcasting for a few minutes after) and of course with it pulverized into the ground we lost all signals. They hurried and started looking for other ways of broadcasting, it took several days though. Any way shortly after the TV went blank, I heard children playing outside. And I had completely forgotten about Grandma in law, she lived below us and took care of my husband's baby second cousins. (her great grandchildren). I told my husband he needed to run down the stairs (we lived on the fourth floor) and tell grandma to get in the house with the kids the ash, smoke etc was not good for them, and the news had said we were supposed to be in the house and not go outside any way!
Grandma in law, said she had just gotten up that day and taken the kids outside, with out turning on the TV, she had no idea what was going on.
The next week would be probably one of the most nerve wracking weeks of my marriage. As two hours after the TV went out, my husband got a phone call that he was mandated to come into work, even though his shift didn't start till midnight that night. And it was still late morning. He went to work and I didn't see him for a week. They kept him 24 hours a day at work keeping the generators going for the rescue workers. He had no food, he would use a walkie talkie to communicate with me when he could, because there was no cell phone service, it was all tied up too many phone calls, same with land lines! The Red Cross was not feeding him or the other Transit workers thinking they could go and get food. I finally had to tell him, tell them you are mandated not to leave, you can not get food, please give you a sandwich just like they were the rescue workers. So after about 2 days he finally talked the Red Cross into giving him food too. Also they were telling him and the other transit workers, and rescuers that the air quality was fine no need to wear any breathing protection. I told my husband to NOT take off his mask, I didn't care what they were saying. As I was hearing the same thing from the governor on the radio, but I wasn't believing a minute of it! Thankfully my husband does not have the lung conditions that many of the other workers now has, he did not take off his mask. However, he also didn't have the kind of mask you are supposed to have in this situation either, and snores now when he never did before.
Two weeks later we went on a cruise, our belated honeymoon. It was eerie on the plane, the plane was almost empty. And the few people on it were very nervous. I'll never forget the pilots speech. We were to stay in our seats, if we wanted to go to the bathroom or get up for any reason we were to use the little light thing to signal for the steward to come and see what we needed. And if they deemed we could get up then we would, if not we would be considered a terrorist and his exact words, would be handled as such.......my husband and I took that as.....probably wouldn't be seeing you alive again if you got up with out permission! lol During that cruise my husband who had never had any health problems at all started getting some health problems, like he became allergic to shampoo, soap and deodorant and we had to stop using all that kind of stuff completely.
Also my family wasn't able to get a hold of me for days and was so worried about me, I had just moved from Kansas to NYC. After all the phone congestion died down enough for them to get through on the phone they were wanting to talk to me non stop for a while and I to them as well, it was SCARY!
