Some of the people that have been here a while may remember my story.
My office was on the 82nd floor of One World Trade Center (north tower). Fortunately for me, my mother had been staying with us and was to return to Florida on a 1 pm flight on September 11. My wife did not feel comfortable taking her to the airport herself as Newark was doing some construction and she made me stay home to take Mom to the airport. My son called me that morning from his Jersey City office across the river because they had just heard that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center and he could not believe that I was home. I then watched everything unfold on TV.
Unfortunately, we lost three wonderful people from my office that day that worked for me or with me. We later pieced together that one had hurt his leg in the office and the other two stayed with him, after the Port Authority told people to stay and wait to be rescued. Charles's remains were found outside the building where he had almost made it after he apparently had a change of mind at some point. The stories of the people from my office that survived were truly amazing. Three people were in the concourse when the south tower collapsed and they barely made it through the blackness to the outside.
It certainly pays to be lucky and be in the right place at the right time. I was also lucky in 1993 in the first World Trade Center bombing as I would normally have been in the blast area as I went to lunch early at the time of the bombing. I was in Florida with my father who was near death from surgery and died soon after the bombing. I watched that on TV in the hospital waiting room. I always felt that he held on to save me.
After September 11, our office (part of the NYS Department of Transportation) moved temporarily for a number of years to Long Island City which was a tough commute from Staten Island. We finally relocated to Water Street near the South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan, which wasn't as bad until I moved to Monroe, NJ.
But life is great, as I retired three years ago and I am enjoying every minute of it!