The Stillroom

Twenty years ago today was the day of The Stillroom Gift & Tea shop’s grand opening.

I was on my way. The September sky was beautiful that morning, as they almost always are.

Crisp air, blue sky and puffy clouds.

I had my radio tuned in to Howard Stern when I heard Ba Ba Booey break in to say a plane crashed into one of the twin towers.

(My husband and son were at the top of those towers just a few months prior).

I wasn’t sure exactly what it was I was hearing. I went in to the shop not really knowing the extent of what was happening and I honestly don’t remember much of how I went about the next hour or so other than it was eerily quiet.

I closed up, locked the door and drove back home only to witness the rest of the terror on tv.

My son was eleven at the time. When he visited the towers on his trip, he stood at the very bottom of the Trade Center and leaning against the building and looking up the side, he snapped several pictures. Because he had that wonderful experience, he also had the capacity to grasp the severity of what happened.

To this day, when I look up at the sun splashed September sky in late summer, I am still overtaken by an overwhelming feeling of sadness and grief mixed with pride in how we all banded together as one country.

Helping in any possible way we could, politics be damned.