Expecting a Baby on 9/11/01

I have a terrible memory, but I will never forget that day, and weirdly enough, the day before. The day before I had been called for jury duty, my first time. I was about 16 weeks pregnant and suffering greatly from severe morning sickness. I had just closed a show on September 9th after a summer-long run. If you click here, you can see the theatre on the left hand side, and the Capitol Building in the upper right hand corner, that's how close I was to the Capitol Building everyday. I was tired, fatigued and feeling very unpatriotic and unwilling to serve my country. The entire time I was in the court room I was thinking about what I would say to get out of it. I am sure I ended up saying something lame about being sick and pregnant. For whatever reason, I was excused from serving.

I lived in College Park, Maryland on September 11th, 2001. We were located 10 miles from the Capitol Building, and 13 miles from the Pentagon. I went back and read my journal entry from that day, and it has a lot of facts and not a lot of feelings. I usually write rather emotionally, and with a point of view, and this entry had a lot of stats and events and facts and figures. I think I was in shock, weren't we all.

I was just leaving my apartment at around 8:45, which makes sense because I was temping at the University of Maryland where my husband was attending business school, and I am sure my day started at 9. I was watching Good Morning America as I was getting ready for work and I heard Diane Sawyer report about the first plane crash. Both my DH and I thought it was a tragic and unfortunate accident, and were of course interested in hearing the details, but we had to get to work.

I arrived at work and just went about my business and soon realized that everyone was gravitating towards the television screens. I don't think anyone grasped that this was a terrorist attack. At first I thought it was unprofessional that everyone was stopping their work to watch CNN, and even when I heard about the second crash, I didn't leave my desk. It was only when the towers began to fall that we all realized we wouldn't be getting any work done that day, and we all watched together in total and utter shock. Then when news of the Pentagon and a fourth plane came through, we started to get concerned for our own safety. We were dismissed for the day. A few days later when I returned to work, my job was to keep a list of those alumni we knew had survived. Every name that I wrote and page that I turned on that board brought me a little glimmer of hope.

My DH and I and a few friends spent the entire day sitting on our futon watching CNN and trying to get in touch with loved ones. My main thoughts were: “How can we move to this city next summer?”, “How many times have I driven by the Pentagon, the Capitol Building, other places I would have been in danger?” “What would I have done if DH's Sept. 7th interview in NYC had been today?” “How can we bring a baby into the world during World War III?”

The two most memorable images in my mind on that day, besides the obvious, were Ron Insana from CNBC on the air, shaken and covered in dust. He had run for his life and into the studio and reported without cleaning up or anything. And the second most memorable image was the look in President Bush's eye and the word coward.

Later, what resonated the most for me were the mothers who were expecting and had lost their husbands. I watched the Diane Sawyer special on the Babies of 9/11, and I looked at my baby and my husband and realized how blessed I was to still have my husband. I have been inspired by all of those women who stayed strong for themselves and their children through the indescribable tragedy they had just lived through. My most recent hero from the 9/11 attacks is Lachanze. She was 8 months pregnant when she lost her husband in the attack. Years later she went on to star on Broadway in The Color Purple. You can watch her story here. Click on press > 20/20 interview.





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