A Bear In St. Louis

Thoughts on September 11th

As I was packing for Vegas last night, my teddy bear kept getting into my suitcase. He quite clearly wanted to come to. I kept taking him out (room always being a premium in a small bag) but he just kept getting right back in when I wasn’t looking. There are those that would suggest my fiancé was putting him in when I was out of the room but I was content to believe he just wanted to come. In the end I relented and squashed him down at one end.

Today, September 11th 2001 my alarm went off at 5.20am. I got up, drank my tea and headed off to the airport by cab. Our plane left National Airport in downtown DC at 8.15am.

At around 10.15 am (after a quick sleep) I settled down to read my newspaper and noticed that our plane was turning steeply. A few minutes later we turned again. Not unusual, although the turn was very steep. After we had turned, the pilot came on and reported that there were some ‘discrepancies’ with air traffic control and that we had been instructed to land at the nearest airport while these ‘issues’ were sorted out. As soon as we landed we were told that every plane in the skies over the United States had been forced to land due to a national problem with air traffic control. About five minutes later we were told exactly what the problem was. Four hijackings of planes taking off from the East Coast – all headed for the West Coast non stop with full loads of fuel. Two of the planes had been crashed into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and a fourth just outside Pittsburgh.

It was only later in the day, sitting in a St Louis hotel that I realized just how lucky I was. We left at almost exactly the same time the hijacked planes did. We left from the East Coast, heading to the West, non-stop with a full load of fuel. It could so easily have been our plane.

As I sit here watching the President of the United States speak the world about today’s great tragedy, I am joined by my small grey teddy bear who was so desperate to come on this trip. It’s funny, but even though I celebrated my thirty second birthday last week – I am so terribly glad that he did.