I Know I Will Never Forget

This day 7 years ago, in the morning I drove home from work and climbed into my bed, pulled the covers up and planned on sleeping the day away until I had to get up and go to work. Gerard called me to with the news. Instantly the TV went on! I live near New York City about 2.5 hours away and it is not uncommon for people who live in my area to drive to NYC for work. As a matter of fact my sister who had just moved in with me with her 3 children was on her way in to NYC.

Gerard and I talked for a couple of minutes then he had to make a few more phone calls to check on other family members who work in NYC. My telephone did not stop ringing, this time it was the hospitals that I worked for looking for me to go in so that we could set up for emergency transports of non-critical patients to my hospital. The sad thing was that this was the first time that I felt torn because I could not and would not leave my nieces until I knew my sister was home and safe to care for them.

In my hospital the emergency area that was completely set to receive patients none came. The room stayed empty and dark. That night at work in the nursery was the first time I realized that children are affected by the events that are unfolding around them. There were a number of infants born that day. No matter what we did we could not get any of them to settle down and stop crying. Finally my idea was to bring as many of them as possible out to their mother's as we could. This was the only thing that helped quiet these little babies.
I will never forget!