WyzWmn's World©

all this thinking that I’ve been doing
about 9-11
has made me think
of other monumental occurrences
that have taken place during my lifespan
things that have shaped our worlds and lives……

where were you when the first man walked on the moon?

I was in Merritt BC at my aunt and uncle’s place….the fadder was trying to watch the news clips as it happened and the aunt and the uncle and the cousin’s were all gun ho to go to the demolition derby…the fadder says “this is history in the making…a man is walking on the moon” and the uncle says “yes…but the smash up derby only comes to Merritt once a year!”

where were you when JFK got shot?

“NOV. 22, 1963 (FRIDAY): John Fitzgerald Kennedy is shot at 12:30 p.m. while riding in an open-top limousine in a motorcade through downtown Dallas. He is pronounced dead at 1 p.m. at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Eighty minutes after the assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested. Later Oswald is charged with murder”
I was 8….and my mother wouldn’t let me watch the footage on TV as she didn’t want me “scared for life”

where were you when John Lennon got shot?

I was working in a bar in Thunder Bay ON…Matt Minglewood band had just finished playing an amazing set of rockin blues and walked off the stage for the night…3 minutes later, with the house lights on Matt came back on stage and announced that he and the band had just seen the news footage and that John Lennon was dead..his voice was laden with emotion….there was likely close to 300 people in that room and you could have heard a pin drop…and then the tears began

what sticks out in your mind?
what world changing event do you remember with absolute clarity?

six years later….

WoW

do you remember what you were doing
Sept 11 2001?

I got up in the morning to an email from a family member
it simply said “Oh my god…turn on the news”

so I sat
in my burgundy recliner
in the safety of my living room
in my flannel nightgown
and chenille robe
from morning to late afternoon
mesmerized….
horrified….
and crying inconsolably….

thousands of things stand out for me
the fear of those people in the Towers
and on the planes
the phone cell phone calls
the fact that a charged cell phone could be used as a light
the devastation
the deaths
the dirt

remember the triage set up across the river that serviced almost no one?remember the loss of demeanor of the news anchors?
remember the postulating of politicians?
remember the tears of those left behind?

where were you Sept 11, 2001?

I remember one thing with absolute clarity
I remember thinking that life is just this tenuous
and that we need to remember that slim window called life

in everything we do and say
from morning to night
day in day out

and so…on Sept 12, 2001
I set about “getting my life back”
I set about “getting me back to being me”

sometimes I’ve succeeded
and sometimes….not so much

but all the time
I am conscious of that slim window
that closed for so many
Sept 11, 2001