[The Fixer]

When I heard the fire siren this morning at 9:02, it dawned on me what today's date was. I remember exactly where I was on 9/11/01. The town I work in (Cliffside Park) is right across the river from the midtown section of NYC. It's about 10 minutes below the George Washington Bridge. Right down the block from the school is a beautiful view of the skyline. I was at work in the High School, and was walking down the hall to another teacher's classroom to say Hi when the scene of the first plane smoking inside the first tower cought my eye on a television. I walked into this other room, and watched in utter disbelief as the second plane crashed. I was horrified. I went down to my classroom and we watched the news coverage all day. I watched as the towers collapsed. We were close enough that we could smell the smoke and had ash on our cars when we left that day.

On September 12, I found out one of my former students had an older brother that didn't make it out of the Towers. He was doing his college internship at one of the companies based up around the area one of the planes hit.

It was truly a devastating day for so many people here in the NY Metro area, out in the fields of PA, and in DC. We will never forget those who made the ultimate sacrifice.