I was at work, in a file room, and someone said that a plane had hit a building. I thought they were talking about locally, and thought it was a small personal plane at first.

Then remember trying to get on a computer to see the news, and all the major new sites were locking up from all the people trying to get information. When the plane hit the Pentagon, and there were reports that more planes were still in the air, I made the comment - "they're going to shoot those planes down if they don't respond" and someone else said "they wouldn't kill innocent citizens." I said "they're going to die any way". Sure enough, we later learned that there were orders to shoot down any other planes if it came to that. Then the final report of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.

I was glued to the television reports for the rest of the week. This happened on a Tuesday. I remember that I was out running errands on a Saturday, and that's when the deep depression and despair of what had happened four days earlier just hit me. It was the saddest and darkest weekend of my life.

What a beautiful memorial as I'm watching the television this morning.