9/11

My thoughts and prayers go to all those who have been affected by the events of what happened 10 years ago today.

I was on a plane 10 years and 1 day ago, on my way to Canada.
I transited through Los Angeles on the 10th of September 2001.

September 10th was my dad’s birthday and I had planned this date to ask Sonia to marry me.

I did this on the evening of the 10th when I arrived in Cranbrook, BC.

She said “Yes”

As you can imagine, we were very happy.

I was half a world away from New Zealand and she was a long way from her hometown of Montreal, but we were together and incredibly happy – that changed less than 12 hours later when the world we know, changed forever.

Such a historical event, I’m sure everyone can remember exactly where they were at that exact moment in time. When they heard about or watched the events unfold.

I got out of bed early and turned on the TV – my body was on New Zealand time and I was wide awake – I was flicking around the channels when I came across what I thought was a movie but no, it was a live news feed from New York. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and I called out for Sonia to come and see this. We sat there, eyes fixed to the screen with looks of disbelief on our faces. We watched as the second plane hit the World Trade Center and just felt sick.

We, like many millions of people around the world, felt so helpless.

What dawned as the happiest day of our life, quickly turned into one of the most sombre days that will remain with us forever.

We sat together in each other’s arms alone, miles from home, miles from family and friends but together

Kia Kaha New York