Remembering 9/11
It is hard to believe that it has been 15 years now since the day that changed our world forever.
I was in my senior year of college at Shorter College in Rome, Ga. I was in an 8am psychology class. We had no idea our world had changed forever while we were sitting that class. When class was over some of us stayed in the room as we had the 9:15 psychology class. People starting coming in talking about a plane hitting one of the Twin Towers. We did have our 9:15 class in its entirety.
When class was over I ran to my dorm room and turned the tv on. I was in shock. I rushed to the Campus Safety office in the Fitton Student Union where I worked part time to help pay for school. The Campus Safety Director was from New York so she was a nervous wreck the whole day. I ended up staying there the rest of the day.
I had never been to New York. In 2010, I did get to finally go to NYC. I took a tour of the city which included seeing where the Twins Towers had been and the construction of Freedom Tower and One World Trade Center. The guide of my group was a survivor of that day and he told us his story. It was a powerful story to hear.
Construction at Ground Zero 
On the Hudson River seeing the Statue of Liberty; At Times Square; Having my “Naked Cowboy Experience”
Here is a book about 9/11 that I hope to read one day:
Title: Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust
Author: Michael Hingson with Susy Flory
Published: August 1, 2011
256 Pages
Book Description from Amazon:
Faith. Trust. Triumph.
“I’m sorry,” the doctor said. “He is permanently and totally blind. There is nothing we can do for him.”
George and Sarah Hingson looked at each other, devastated. Their six-month-old son, Michael was a happy, strawberry blond baby boy, healthy and normal in every way except one. When the Hingsons switched on a light or made silly faces, Michael did not react. Ever. “My best suggestion is that you send him to a home for the blind,” the doctor continued. “He will never be able to do anything for himself.”
Forty-seven years later, a yellow Labrador retriever puppy was born in the whelping unit of Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, California. The puppy’s name was Roselle. On September 11, 2001, she saved Michael’s life. This is Roselle’s story too.
―From the Introduction
Every moment in Michael Hingson’s and Roselle’s lives seemed to lead up to this day. When one of four hijacked planes flew into the World Trade Center’s north tower on September 11, 2001, Michael Hingson, a district sales manager for a data protection and network security systems company, was sitting down for a meeting. His guide dog, Roselle, was at his feet. Paired for twenty-one months, man and dog spent that time forging a bond of trust, much like police partners who trust their lives to each other.
Michael couldn’t see a thing, but he could hear the sounds of shattering glass, falling debris, and terrified people flooding around him and Roselle. However, Roselle sat calmly beside him. In that moment, Michael chose to trust Roselle’s judgment and not to panic. They were a team.
Thunder Dog is a story that will forever change your spirit and your perspective. It illuminates Hingson’s lifelong determination to achieve parity in a sighted world and how the rare trust between a man and his guide dog can inspire an unshakable faith in each one of us.
**The cover image of Thunder Dog is provided by Amazon, the pictures that are not mine are provided by Pixabay