The story never changes from year to year. The memory will always be the same. READ THIS INCREDIBLE RECOUNT!

This post was initially written on 9/11/2010.  

The story never changes from year to year.  The memory will always be the same.

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My day started as usual, the alarm went off at 7:00 a.m................I awoke in my Jackson Heights apartment to a beautiful sunny day, birds singing, the sounds of life out on the streets, what could possibly go wrong?  It was perfection, at least for the time being....................... 

Every morning before work, I would meet a co-worker for coffee at a little place down the street from our office in Manhattan.  Since I didn't have any early appointments scheduled for that day, I decided I would call her on my way to work and tell her we'd just meet at the office at 9:00 a.m.  I put on a pot of coffee and proceeded to the shower. 

Dressed and on my way to the subway now...........take out my cell phone and "no signal".........hmmmmmm, odd, did I forget to charge it last night?  No..........it was plugged into the charger when I woke up this morning...........oh well, she'll figure it out when she sees I'm not there. 

Walking up the stairs to the subway platform (they are elevated in Queens) a woman with earphones on listening to her radio says to me "did you hear a plane just crashed into one of the twin towers?"........wow, horrible accident.  Continuous updates while we wait for the train.............train arrives, we board.  Crowded, hot, and in the distance looking into Manhattan, we see smoke and flames surrounding the twin towers.  Worse than we thought...........no reception on her radio any more, we have no idea what's happening........I say to her "I only see one tower"............can't be, must be the view from here, you can't see both............"no, I take this train every day, you can see both clearly"............very strange.

The train stops just before we enter the tunnel into Manhattan...........the voice of the conductor "one of the towers is down, there is no more train service into Manhattan, the only vehicles allowed on the road are emergency vehicles, we must evacuate the train".  Now on a typical day, when a train stops on the tracks and has to be evacuated, there is tons of chaos, bitching, pushing, shoving............madness.  Not that day............it was surreal.  The doors of the train opened and thousands of people filed out of the train in an orderly fashion, down the stairs and into the deserted streets of Queens.........almost complete silence..........we were all in shock............how can this be?  What is going on?  We still didn't have all the facts, and wouldn't until we got home.

Do I venture into the city and to the office?  No, well maybe, should I?  Shouldn't I?  I decide to go home.  People walking in the middle of the streets, on the sidewalk, confused, sad, overwhelmed and we still don't have all the facts..............keep in mind, no vehicles on the streets.

Several blocks into my walk home, I see a woman standing in the entrance of a store front............she's pregnant and she's crying.  I approach her "can I help?".............she tells me she has no idea where she is, she was at work, St. Vincent's Hospital, the closest hospital to the World Trade Center.......when they heard the news her boss told her to leave, she was due any day and with this horrible tragedy, if she didn't leave now, who knows when she would get home...........she goes down to the subway platform, tons of people, pushing, shoving, scared..........she gets pushed onto the wrong train, she's lost..........worse yet, I have no idea how to get her to where she lives.  We walk together, I tell her she can come back to my apartment and rest, wait it out until we can figure out how to get her home.........remember, no public transportation.

We walk a few blocks, she calms down a bit, she thanks me for stopping to help her...........she tells me she's still working because they need the money.  Today is her due date, she's sure her husband is worried, and there is no way to contact him.............we walk, we talk............she is much calmer now...........it's like there is no one else on the streets, but when you look around, there are thousands of people, I only hear her voice.

I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes as I recall the next part of the story.............from nowhere, a bus appears..............what is this?  there are no vehicles allowed on the streets, why is this bus on the street?  It stops, the driver opens the door and asks where we are going.  I explain to him that she needs to get to {I don't remember where} and she has no idea how to get there from here............he tells her to get on the bus..........she climbs the stairs............he tells me to get on the bus, I tell him I can walk the rest of the way home...........he insists, I get on the bus.  He tells her he can get her to "such and such a point, will she know how to get home from there"..............."yes she replies, it's a short distance from there".  He drives, we sit in silence.  He tells me to let him know when I need to get off the bus, we are about 60 blocks from my street.  He stops for no one else.............thousands of people walking, we're the only two on the bus...........why?  Two more blocks is my street..................

He stops the bus, I wish her luck and thank him for stopping for us...........down the steps I go, and watch as the bus pulls away....................

I think of her to this day............I wonder if she made it home okay, did she have a boy or a girl, how is that nine year old doing today, how is she doing today?  Lots of questions in my mind about that day and that particular experience, but the main question is:

Was the bus driver an Angel sent from God?

My guess is YES!

No need to tell you what the rest of that day was like for me, you all know, you experienced it too.

Make it a great day! 

Please visit my website at www.shakenwithatwist.com or e-mail me at roger@shakenwithatwist.com

Please check out my brother Anthony's website.  

He owns a dog walking and pet sitting service in Fort Lauderdale.  

You, or someone you know may need his services some day.

http://www.dailydogwalkers.com/