September 11th

It was our junior year and I was in biology when the announcement came over the intercom to turn on the TV’s. We went from class to class that day and learned nothing. Everyone just stared at the TV. We knew things were going to change and everyone was scared. I never knew just how much that moment would change our entire lives. When Nicholas decided to join the Army in 2003 we both knew there was a chance that he would deploy but we thought surely the war would end soon. We were wrong. And now he has spent 30 months deployed with 6 more to go before it ends. We’ve lost people. Good people.

On September 11th, 2008 Nicholas had been home for R&R for 1 day when the phone rang, it was our FRG leader and I’ll never forget her words “Your soldier is fine but there was a death in the troop” I was looking at Nicholas sitting on the sofa and as soon as he saw my face he said “what’s wrong” and I asked Stephanie, “Can you tell me who it was” when she told me the name I looked and Nicholas and said “Mike’s dead.” I will never forget that. We spent the next few days trying to find out what what going on and how the rest of his troop members were doing with the loss. This is how September 11th, 2001 still has an effect on our lives every day. I didn’t know Mike that well, I couldn’t tell you anything about his personality or his favorite food but just last week I saw his wife at a get together. I asked her how she was doing and she said “You want the truth or do you want me to lie to you” I said “tell me the truth” and she said “It’s still hard, things are getting better but I’m not looking forward to next week.” I didn’t even know what to say to that so I said “I’m sorry.” It broke my heart. Watching their 5 yr old son that was 3 when Mike died broke my heart.

Mike and Nicholas