On the way, I listened to a blur of witnesses. Then, as I got close to church, more breaking news. There were reports of a plane crash in Pennsylvania. It was now speculated that these planes had been hijacked. It seemed so odd that this plane had crashed in an empty field. Why hadn't they tried to hit something on the ground?
When I arrived at church, people were walking around like zombies. Several were crying. We exchanged stories: how we heard the news, how we reacted. I left Reagan in the nursery and walked down the hall to class with my friend, Kathy. There was a few minutes of complete panic when her phone rang, and she got a report that Camp David had been hit. I wouldn't find out until I got home later that this information was false. I remembered my cell phone in the car. What if the schools were cancelled and I needed to pick Pierce up early? I ran back to get it.
About 15 of us gathered. A couple of women spoke and read Bible passages, a couple prayed. We all cried. Then to end the class, we stood in a circle holding hands and each took a turn praying. I was so glad I went. I felt some peace.
My mind was filled with questions as I went to pick Pierce up from school. Would the teachers know? How much would they know? Would they ask me what I knew? I sat outside the school and composed myself. Pierce's teachers brought his class outside. They acted as if nothing was different. They didn't want the kids to get upset. On the ride home, Pierce chattered away, blissfully unaware.
As soon as I got home, I turned on the TV. Pierce was oblivious to what was happening. Each station speculated how many people had been killed. I had already prepared myself to hear about 10,000. It was too early to tell. Information was scrolling across the bottom of the screen. Malls were closed, churches all over Nashville were announcing prayer services. Tim worked downtown. There was a building a few blocks away from his office that had been evacuated because of a bomb threat. This happened to many buildings around town that day. For the first time all day, I put my head in my hands and cried. Tim called, but we didn't know what to say to each other. I put the kids down for naps, then went back to the TV. They were asking for blood donors. My blood is O+, and I knew it would be in demand. I called my friend, Tammy, from Ladies Class. She was an OB nurse, and I wanted to know how soon after having a baby I could donate blood. I got her machine, so I called the Red Cross. They told me one could give blood six weeks after giving birth. Reagan was 7-months-old. Tammy called later to answer my question. She wasn't worried about a lack of blood, she was more concerned that the blood wouldn't be needed. Very few were coming in injured, which meant the death toll would be big. She asked if I'd heard about our church's prayer service. I had seen it on TV. I called Tim to tell him I wanted us to go.
I had dinner warmed up when Tim got home. Reagan was napping and Pierce was at the table. We went to the living room. Tim saw the pictures for the first time. The WTC and the Pentagon continued to burn. A third building, tower #7, had collapsed at about 4:30. We watched the plane hit over and over. No matter how many times I saw it, the fireball and then the collapses, I was horrified. I couldn't wrap my brain around it. We clasped hands and cried. We ate in front of the TV. Tim blessed the food and thanked God for keeping us all safe. He said that one of his first impulses had been to go get Pierce from school, but he had decided Pierce would be safe there. We didn't have much time to talk. We gobbled down dinner and got the kids ready for church.
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