Columnist recalls 'horrible day' of 9/11

Denver, Colo., Sep 6, 2011 / 09:08 am

Brian Caulfield, a CNA columnist and editor of the Fathers for Good website, has recalled his experience on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

In his column, Caulfield writes:

As a husband and a father, 9/11 is personal for me.

I grew up in lower Manhattan, a few blocks from the World Trade Center. As a boy in the early 1970s, I watched the Twin Towers rise floor by floor, and took a certain pride in living near the two tallest buildings in the world at the time.

When terrorists flew planes into those buildings, it hit me in the gut and put my family at risk.

My wife and one-year-old son were in our apartment, six blocks from the towers, when the earth shook with the first explosion. I was at my desk at work that morning, having passed the Twin Towers on my way to the subway a few hours earlier. I remember making special note as the colors of dawn shone brilliantly on their steel-and-glass façade, against a flawless, clear sky.

It was the last time I would see the towers standing.

Caulfield's column can be read at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/column.php?n=1760