Since 9/11 - a retired nurse reflects on her personal experience and lifestyle changes since the event

Hubby and I were eating breakfast in Tombstone, Arizona when the second plane flew into the World Trade Center. Since arriving in Tombstone the evening before, checking into a small motel, we had planned the next day’s activities . We were up early in a small café. I noticed the waitresses standing, looking up into a television and asked “what’s going on.” When told, I turned to my husband and said “we have to get out of here.” Like many, my first thought was of being home and with our loved ones. We had a long anxious trip back to North Carolina by car, listening to reports of the disaster.

My husband and I had retired from health care careers and were dabbling in antique sales. and renovating our home. Our business immediately fell off and I soon realized I would have to resume my nursing career. At the time I was fifty-four years old and the prospect of going to work in the hospital setting was daunting. We considered ourselves fortunate when compared with the daily heartache of the World Trade Center victim’s families, and the rescuers, since they were also victims.

I became aware of how insulated we, as a country, had been from attack by virtue of geography. Being surrounded by oceans on two sides, and allies on the others affords an insularity many countries don’t have. But 9/11 shattered all feelings of safety from terrorism. We now know that huge defense budgets don’t guarantee our safety. We experienced terror as Europe has for decades. At the time I felt reassured by the efforts made to gain knowledge of terrorist activities, but now I wonder if it was all too much and if wars on two fronts hasn’t brought us to the brink of disaster. The fear caused by the terrorist attack had devastating financial consequences to small business owners across our continent and ripples spread around the world.

Ten years later we are sixty four and seventy one years old and we are refinancing our home to be able to afford it. We have unsold investment properties. We are out of the stock market. We still have a good life but it is not without concerns for our future in all aspects. We see the desperation of people around us and fear falling victim to this desperation. We still feel we live in the greatest country on earth but we want our troops home and our government to work together to restore our tarnished world image.