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Dreadful Nonsense

"I've read your blog. it's really funny. you should write a column." - Jon Ronson


This morning, when we went in to make our first cup of coffee of the day, we found there was no milk in the fridge. Turning around to fill up our water bottles from the water cooler, there’s an out of order sign stuck on the front. “It’s going to be one of those days”, we sighed at each other, walking back to our desks. But it really isn’t.

This time last year…

Everyone knows what they were doing this time last year. This is our JFK / Death of Elvis / Walking on the Moon / Declaration of War day. This is the day we’ll tell our children about. This is the day our children will be taught about in school, as the turning point of world politics, possibly even as the catalyst of what turned out to be World War 3.

Every paper has got special supplements. Almost every TV station have 9/11 specials that last hours. Every church is holding a special service. There is to be a minute’s silence held across the UK at 1.46pm, the moment the first plane struck the first tower. And at the back of everyone’s mind is the thought: can it happen again?

This anniversary is not about politics. It’s not even about terrorism. This anniversary is first and foremost a reminder of our tenuous grasp on life, and how easily it can be taken away. It is a constant admonition of our mortality. 3,057 people left their homes this day last year, most of them only going to work, and never returned. 1,721 families were left without even a trace of a body to bury.

My one abiding memory of this time last year is my very slow walk home from work. I had been kept up to date with events by Susan, who was working in an office in London with Sky News rolling on TV screens around them. She had begun to panic when offices in London were evacuated, and I begged her to go home, without even realising the full extent of what was happening in America. I listened to Radio 4 on my way home, and looking at the first photos printed in the evening newspapers, slowly realised what had happened. The one thing I’ll always remember is looking around me at the other people slowly shuffling home, and seeing that many of them, too, were walking along with tears rolling down their faces.

Timeline of events, 11 September 2001

9/11 in numbers

WTC and Pentagon Memorial

FDNY memorial

This entry was posted on 11 September 2002 at 10:05 am. 0 comments

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