tia: tAkE tWo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRCQypnVeXA


Ten years… a decade… yesterday.

Coming from a long, long line of American farmers, ranchers and military men and women, I was familiar with the concepts of sacrifice and doing what needs doing. As wife to a Navy submariner, you learn a few more things: 1. All vehicles must stop when the flag is being raised or lowered. 2. LLSS (loose lips sink ships.) 3. News travels as slow as hell… especially if it’s the kind of news that will put your mind at ease.

I was in upstate New York, away from anything military or family. As I hit the snooze button one-more-time, through the morning cobwebs and daybreak revolt of my mind, I heard that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. All I could think of was the movie, “King Kong.” I mumbled something like, “Dope, wrong building!” Slowly, my spider sense kicked in though, no one accidently hits the WTC. I got out of bed, turned on the television and got dressed. I was on the phone with one of my sisters when the second plane hit. I remember telling her this wouldn’t be the last event and if the phones went, that I loved her and she needed to tell our mother that. As the other reports came in, I hung up and called my Navy contact ombudsman. No news. The men were out to sea, no idea where, but she’d call when she knew anything. The rest of the day’s events unfolded. My mother had been having small strokes all summer long and wasn’t really able to process everything. (As if anything that day was easy to understand!) Her response to each attack was much like everyone else’s, “Oh no, not the World Trade Center!”… “BOTH World Trade Centers?!?!?”... “NO! Not the Pentagon!!” I had my mom and two sisters on a conference call for hours, huddling together the best we could… exchanging I love you-s and promising to take care no matter what.

The late afternoon was spent waiting for more news. I felt helpless with nowhere to turn. Couldn’t go anywhere because I wasn’t about to miss my Navy call, but I needed to do something. I set myself to the task of flying the flag. The original rope had rotted and broken, so it needed replacing. Thing was, the tree that was used for this was like 15-20 feet high and the pulley at the top was small. Made do with the cab of the truck and a fishing pole. Took the better part of two hours, a ton of tears and some pretty impressive cuss words, but by G-d it flew!!! I even scrounged up a light to let it shine through the night.

Ten years later, the flag still flies.
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