9-11 recollections

 

9-11 recollections

It has been 19 years ago since 9/11. I recall that morning when I was on a business trip with my father, I was leaving the NY hotel, taking a taxi at 6:00 in the morning heading towards the airport. The city was waking up, and the morning light was about to break. The taxi went by the Twin towers, and I thought, it would be nice going up to the observatory deck next time I am in town.

Roll time forward, 3 hours after that, I landed in Boston, and was told by the taxi driver that a plane flew into one of the towers. It must have been 8:50am or so. As we walked into the Hotel lobby, everybody has their eyes glued onto the TV, as we see footage of the 1^st plane flying into the tower one. As everybody was dumbfound, looking at the TV in disbelieve, as if it was a movie that has gone wrong. Moments later we see real life footage of the second plane UA 175 (later found out to be the plane that I was originally booked on) flying into the 2^nd tower.

Now as nobody knew how to respond to such graphics, my father and I queued to get ourselves checked in. To our surprise, our name was not found on the register. Feeling a little loss, I decided to call my mom back in Hong Kong who was the one who booked for us. Being guys, (my father and I) it never came across our mind to call home, to say everything was okay. Now this is before the internet days, there is no free internet calls but just IDD and its ROAMING IDD that costs 20 bucks a minute. So the first word that the phone was answered was. MUM DID YOU FORGET TO BOOK US A ROOM!??? Mum obviously was devastates, and started weeping hearing our voice. The reason being, on our itinerary, we were flying out of Boston to LA, on flight UA175. Unaware of this, I continued. “MUM, this is an IDD CALL its really very expensive!”  Did you book our hotel or not???? Ending the call in anger as my mum took an extra 15 seconds to say I am glad you guys are save, which costed me an extra 20 bucks. In the end all was sorted out, as they had the middle name and last name swapped around. We thank God that it was done that way, otherwise I would have never called home. Actually after like an hour of that, it came to my lightning fast mind that I should call my girlfriend (now my wife) to let her know I am okay! (Yes I have grown to be more responsible now)

So God kept me save, by moving my whole schedule one day later because a customer said he needed to see us, and he can’t do it unless we reschedule, so originally I was to fly out of Boston to LA on the 11th, instead my whole trip was shifted one day later, so I flew out form NY to Boston on the 11th, and then supposedly to fly out of Boston to LA on the 12^th. (In the end I flew home on the 16^th.)  

So I am alive here today, because God made some divine arrangements and changed my schedule., instead of flying into tower 2. I am glad I am alive.