On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Jill Gilbert recalls that life was normal.
After starting the laundry, she began homeschooling each of her children. A few hours later, while she was folding laundry, the family maid walked in and told her to turn on the news. Instantly, fear started creeping up on her as she watched the news.
Her husband Jim, a contracted one-on-one tutor for local schools, also commented on how his day was just like any other. He was tutoring a student, and, while they were taking one of their regularly scheduled breaks, he found out about the first attack.
Within minutes, TVs manifested around all the hallways of the school. Students gathered around, watching everything happen play by play. Without an actual announcement, the school’s classes were suspended for the rest of the day.
Initially, Jim dismissed all the commotion as an accident. He continued to the next school, where he worked with a student who had trouble focusing. After a few minutes, when Jim asked what was bothering the student, the boy mentioned something about the second plane.
Jim was taken aback. This was the first time that he had heard about a second crash. This was his first realization that all the damage done up to that point was on purpose. However, fear was not the emotion that he felt; he had grown up during the Cuban missile crisis after all. Jim canceled his appointments with his students for the rest of the day and went home to his wife and children, not to say a word about the events of the day.
Unannounced to Jim, the rest of the family had stopped schooling for the day and watched the events unfold live.
For the first time in his life, their oldest Joseph realized that the world was not a safe place. He realized that people would be targeting him because of his nationality. These were all realizations at the ripe age of 11, according to Jill.
For better or for worse, things in their life changed.
On a macro level, security was much stricter. Flying was no longer a dress-up affair. Dogs were commonly found sniffing out luggage. Pat-downs became common occurrences. Families could no longer wave goodbye at the gates of airlines. On a micro level, changes were not as drastic for the Gilberts, seeing as they only lost their maid.
By Sunday, life returned “normal.” Although life would never truly be the same after the events of 9/11, neither of the Gilberts could recall anything out of the ordinary happening in the days following. Life just continued.
Feature image by Timon Studler on Unsplash