[tesco samoa]

I read this at KOS today.

I arrived for work about 30 minutes early on 9/11. I worked on the 89th floor of Tower 1, World Trade Center.
I had recently met, and became fond of a young lady who worked on the 4th floor of Tower 1. A few days before I asked her out for a date and she gave me her phone number and asked me to call. I couldn't call her, I was too nervous. I decided on the morning of 9/11/2001 to see her before she arrived to work at 8:30. By the time I made my way from the 89th floor to the 4th floor she had probably been at work for 10 minutes. She saw me arrive at her desk and she smiled. We chatted for a few minutes (and yes, I was able to ask her out in this time and she said yes). I would estimate we had talked for about 5 minutes tops when the building felt like it jumped off the grounds and slammed back down. If I wasn't nervous already, I was now. We got to a window with a view to see smoke, black smoke up in the sky. The people at her lawfirm were frantic, trying to determine what had happened. I thought maybe a tower, or A/C or electrical device blew up on the roof. I had no idea. They assured us that the building was safe and for those who needed to stay they could and anyone was free to leave. (We were starting to lose phones so they saw no need for us all to stay). I called up to my office with no luck. I also tried to call several people on cell phones with no luck. I thought about going up to see if I could be of help upstairs. My new friend came with me. She told me, "Rich, I have a bad feeling we need to get out of here now". The elevator took forever to get there (I had no idea if it was out of service or just slow from every floor using it). I kept trying to call my co-workers but no one answered the phones or cell phones. By this time my cell phone wouldn't get a dial tone. We decided to get to the stair case but by that point there were firemen telling us to get out now. We headed for the staircase. There were more people in the staircase than I thought possible. I looked at my watch and it was 9:54. We headed down and I made sure, I held my friends hand as firmly as I could.
It took us 12 minutes to get from the 4th floor to the exterior of the building. There was crap falling from the sky and I knew it was too dangerous to stay there. We ran and ran and ran. When we got a safe distance away I looked up and couldn't believe what I was seeing. Not only had our building been hit but the South tower as well.

My friend said we were still too close to the buildings. I had to agree with her. We went from a pretty good run to a very fast walk. I tried to call on my cell phone again as we were walking--nothing. I started to cry knowing where the smoke was my co-workers-friends were not in good shape. I look at my watch at 10:04 and remembered today was my Mom's birthday. My Mom lives in Illinois and I sent her a card a few days before and had FTD flowers to her that should have arrived there sometime this morning.

We looked back and the south tower was falling and people were screaming. We were a good 15 blocks away but the smoke and debris was moving so fast, so quickly.

Some of my Co-workers were lucky by not being at work, arriving late or not being at the office for whatever reason. Some of my Co-workers and friends were lost.

It's been 2 years since that day and yet it feels like only days ago.

My friend and I became even better friends and we fell in love and married on July 27, 2002. We are expecting our first child today.

The friend of ours who introduced us to each other wasn't able to attend our wedding. She won't get to share in the birth of our child either. She doesn't even know that my friend said yes to going out with me and that we went on our first date. Our mutual friend had the misfortune of being at work on the 89th floor on September 11, 2002 and we miss her dearly.

Please whatever your political views or ideologies, remember those who perished and never forget.

Thanks for listening,
Rich