IN MEMORY OF THE VICTIMS OF SEPT. 11, 2001 AND IN CONDOLENCE TO THE SURVIVORS AND FAMILIES

I will start by saying that I was one of the very fortunate in New York City who did not lose a loved one. And I thank god for that every day, and I pray for the victims and their families every day. Yet it was still the most painful day in my life.

Here is my story.

On the morning of 9/11/01, it seemed like any other work day - following my daily routine; I got up in the morning to head for the law firm where I had worked for over a decade. I stepped off of the subway in front of my midtown Manhattan office building. I went upstairs, got a cup of coffee - arrived at my desk about 9:15am. As I was walking to my desk, a co-worker asked me if I heard that a plane crashed downtown. I said no, but I was soon to see and hear things that would change how I viewed the world forever.

The early crew in the Administrative department where I worked was already there, in shock, watching a TV in the Security Director's office as the dreadful news started to unfold. The first plane had already crashed. Then, courtesy of FOX 5 live at the site, we saw the second plane crash. In what seemed like hours (although it was really only minutes), we watched as the huge buildings, that were a staple of the NYC landscape, fall to the ground. We all stood in silence, for I don't know how long, until we came out of the shock long enough to realize that PEOPLE were in those buildings. A LOT of people. One by one, it started occurring to each of us that members of our own families and friends were actually downtown at that moment, some of them IN those buildings.

The telephones only worked intermittently for many hours. There were 1,200 people in the law firm - and everybody was frantically trying to call loved ones for hours. My own brother worked a block away from the World Trade Center, and often attended meetings there. It took me four traumatic hours to contact him, and my dad who also worked downtown, to find out they were ok. My brother later told me that from his office, he felt the earth shake, he actually witnessed people jumping out of windows, and heard the screams. I felt so extremely relieved and blessed that they were okay, and yet I felt just as guilty - as I was hearing people around me on their phones screaming and crying hysterically as they were finding out that their loved ones were "missing". None of those missing were ever found.

And from my office window on the 49th floor in midtown, I watched downtown manhattan burn. It was never ending smoke. I stood with the men and women I had known and worked with for over a decade - every single person - lawyers, managers, secretaries - in tears. I felt the pain in the City that seemed to dwell for days, weeks, months, even years to come.

No, I didn't lose a loved one, but I lived the pain. The pain was so thick in NYC that week, you couldn't cut it with a knife. And I remember. The pain that took over the City, so many people I worked with and knew lost a husband, father, wife, sister, brother. One of the lawyers in my Firm lost half her family that all worked in a small law firm in WTC - including her brother, father, and new husband - they had only been married 6 months.

We lost people from every walk of life that dreadful day. So many of New York City's Finest; cops, firefighters. No, I will never, ever forget 9/11/01.

GOD BLESS AMERICA