story5815.xml

story5815.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I am a social worker and at that time of that homeless clinic and I was attending a client when he told me there was a terrorist attack in New York and the world trade centers buildings were burning up and collapsing to the ground. We were all in awe! My boyfriend now of one year since 9-8-01 brought down the tv and all the employees gathered to see it in our conference room. We could not believe our eyes, had our mouths wide opened and were in total shock that people were jumping from the windows plummeting to their deaths to avoid being burnt alive. Then tower 1 collapsed, followed by tower 2. All of our eyes began to swell up in tears, some employees had family in NY and they became extremely nervous began calling and could not get through regular phones lines or cell phones. Approximately 2 hours later the firalarm in our building went off and we were all very nervous, but evacuated like we had done previously during practice runs. We are in the downtown Miami area where there are government buildings (courthouse,jail)and those buildings were being evacuated but we did not because our patients / clients need our services and it is a private non-profit organization.. After this passed I began seeing alot of clients which were born in NY or lived there for a long time looking for a shoulder to cry on and someone to console them. I am glad I was there to comfort them and empower them when they most needed me the most. As a social worker my duty is to help others help themselves, in other words empower them. And that's exactly what I did. I know I will remeber this day for the rest of my life eventhough I have never been to NY or know anyone who lives there. As I was watching TV at 8:45 this morning my eyes sweeled up like they did exactly one year ago when I saw all of those families suffering and all of those children born without fathers. Thinking and wondering what I would have done if my husband had perished during these attacks and I was expecting his child. Thank heavens I am a very positive person and always look ahead in the worst of adversities and always see light at the end of the tunnel. I guess that's why I am in this profession of social work because of my attitude and way of talking with people. I hope that everyone that reads this knows evryone that passed away were brave heroes and very loved.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Gardin
Hialeah, Florida.