By The Planet Waves Staff | Edited by Jeanne Treadway | Original layout by Jordan Laughlin
Editor’s Note: One year after Sept. 11, we asked everyone on the Planet Waves staff to contribute their memories of what happened to them that day, what it felt like and what their reflections were. These aren’t your usual ‘I was shocked’ or patriotic messages; they are personal and down to earth. The writing roster is a list of who was on board with Planet Waves in 2002 — I believe we published this a few weeks before Chelsea Bottinelli arrived, hence, her name is missing from this group. — EFC
Through it all, the scariest moment was realizing I hadn’t kissed Noelle and told her I loved her that morning.
I hit the snooze button once too often so my morning was spent hurrying to get myself and my daughters fed, dressed and out the door. I did manage to double-check that they each had their homework and lunch money. I recall sharply reminding them to shut off the lights as we left the house. Frazzled, I made my way down our street. Noelle, the older of the two, was pouting because she thought she was going to be late to school. Carmen was whining because she wanted something warm to eat and not the apple and granola bar I had grabbed for the car ride.
Once we reached the highway, I thought we had gotten a break because there was no traffic at all. Noelle made it to school with 10 minutes to spare! I wondered if it were one of those miscellaneous holidays I don’t get off or something. Carmen, who starts school 20 minutes later than her sister, asked if I’d stop to buy her a hot chocolate. Because I hadn’t had time to make coffee, I eagerly agreed. We were laughing about how lucky we were as we walked into the coffee shop and cheerily greeted the owner with “Hey there Van, how’s it going?” That’s the moment I realized something was terribly wrong.