9/11

Walking to my office on East 25^th Street in Manhattan on the morning of September 11, 2001 I was struck by the beautiful clear sunny sky.  Like everyone else enjoying the fall weather I did not know how terrible this day would be for my city and my country. Office hours started at 9:00am.  The first patient of the morning called us at 9:20am and told us that she saw a plane crashing into the World Trade Center and was afraid to leave home.  We put on the radio and listened in horror to what was happening downtown.

I felt the ceiling rumble at some point and wondered what the upstairs occupants could be doing that was so loud. When I heard the news that the Towers had come down I realized that I had felt the Twin Towers crumbling.

I decided to close the office early so everyone could get home. Normally there are several lanes of traffic going North and South on Park Avenue South. When I walked to the corner all I saw were throngs of people walking north. There was no car or bus traffic on Park Avenue South at 25^th Street. Looking downtown smoke was visible over the horizon.

After getting to my apartment near the office I called the New York Eye & Ear Infirmary to see if they needed medical staff for emergency care.  I was told that very few patients were there. I packed a knapsack with medical supplies and walked to the Beth Israel Hospital ER to volunteer. Doctors and nurses were waiting outside but no ambulances or emergency patients arrived.

The streets and avenues had very little motorized traffic. I walked the blocks and saw people walking quietly, dazed, covered in white soot. A soldier with an M-16 was directing traffic on 23^rd Street and Park Avenue. I could not believe this was really happening. It was surreal.

But this was not a dream. In the following days and weeks as life in the neighborhood started to take on some semblance of normality the attacks of 9/11 were impossible to escape. The pervasive smell of burning rubber was a constant reminder as was the black column of smoke that rose from the horizon downtown.

Walking to work was an ordeal for months because the Armory on Lexington Avenue between 25^th and 26^th Streets was a center for those searching for loved ones they were never to find. The light posts, bus shelters and the storefront windows of the Staples store on 26^th Street and Park Avenue were plastered with pictures of missing people.  The streets around the Medical Examiners at 1^st Avenue and 30^th Street were surrounded by refrigerator trailers for holding body parts.

The New York Times had a two-page spread of pictures of the 343 brave firefighters who died that day. My office manager Susan mounted the pages on a poster board and hung them on the wall of my waiting room. The homemade poster stayed on the wall until a few weeks ago when I was given a wonderful gift from a patient who on 9/11 was an FDNYEMS. He volunteered for service after 9/11, served in the Iraq war and was awarded a Purple Heart.

He and his wife gave me a framed poster of these brave FDNY heroes. Their memory will be forever honored in my office.  I also want to thank and remember the service of the American men and woman in our armed forces whose sacrifice is keeping us safe and free.

Here are photos of the original tag board poster and the new framed one:

G-d Bless America

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