I remember...

On this day 7 years ago our country changed forever. I will never forget that day as history unfolded before our very eyes. Here is what I remember. I had been a nurse less than a year and was working at Bronson Hospital. I worked in the float pool but had yet to start training to the Peds floor. Up to this point I had only been trained for NICU. On this fateful day I got pulled to the Peds floor. Once I got there I discovered that I had been given a full assignment of 6 patients. Not only was that terrifying as a new nurse, but also I had never taken more that 3 babies over in the NICU. So needless to say I burst out in tears. Luckily my now friend Jeanette was in charge that day and rescued me. It ended up that I had a nice little 3 kid assignment with all babies. Whew...that crisis averted! The day was progressing along when all of a sudden I notices that some of the parents were watching a very strange movie...or what I thought was a movie. It was very violent and planes were crashing everywhere. Then I noticed that the nursing students were all crying. I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on. We have a big screen TV in our play room and when I walked past there I happened to look in and saw the second plane hit. I think that was when I realized that this was no movie it was real. Somehow I didn't burst into tears again, but I felt a fear like I have never known before. Once I could peal myself away from the TV I had to call my family. I knew none of there were anywhere close to NY or were any of them flying, but in that moment of panic I just needed to know that we were all OK. I couldn't reach anyone because all of the cell communication had been shut down. However eventually I did discover they were all OK. My mom was at a trauma class, dad at work, Rob at work as well, and Tracey was working in Georgia. All safe and sound. Once the towers fell and they just kept repeating the footage over and over we decided it probably wasn't the best to have it on all the TVs. It was back to cartoon network for us and business as usual. However the mood was very mellow and somber. It was odd to look outside. It was a gorgeous day, much like today, and the sky was completely silent. The streets were very quiet as well. It was almost as if all the people were hiding. What an incredibly eerie feeling. I didn't realize how much plane traffic there was over little Kalamazoo until there was none. I survived my first day on Peds and went home to my family. The scariest thing I noticed on my way home was that gas was $5.00 or more a gallon. Thank goodness I had gotten gas the day before.

It was a terrible day for our country and has changed many things around us. I remember all of us stopping and praying right in the middle of the Peds floor and I still continue to pray for the family and friends of those lost on that terrible day. So today I remember how awful that day was, but I also remember how our country rallied and pulled together like never before (in my lifetime)!