Rhea, thanks for sharing your first hand account... it really reminds me of watching the news that day and seeing everyone walking across the bridge...some just walking aimlessly... I'm sorry anyone had to go through that. Sometimes we forget that things like this happen in other countries every day, but that knowledge doesn't make it any easier to deal with when it's happening to us.

On the left coast I woke up, showered, turned on the news to see that the first plane had hit. Still seemed like it was an accident at that time. Had TV on, but got busy getting the kids ready for school, etc. Sent them out the door and saw that the second plane had hit the other tower. Puttered around the house for a few minutes in a total daze then decided to go be at school with my kids. I helped in their classrooms and knew their teachers well. Didn't really want to pull them out of school... wanted to keep things as normal as possible for them... but couldn't stand to be away from them, either. Everything was so uncertain. Even though we were far from New York and DC it was so frightening. My oldest son's teacher and I spent most of the day watching the news unfold while the kids did pretty much whatever they wanted. My oldest was in fourth grade at the time and the teacher was in no frame of mind to teach, quite a few kids didn't come to school, and the rest were just kind of there, hollow. Being a little older, all of them had heard bits and pieces of what was going on, so we helped them understand the facts the best we could. All were allowed to call their parents to talk if they wanted. It was very quiet and somber even in a classroom full of 9 & 10 year olds. I don't think there was one discipline issue the entire day. Very quiet kids...