9/11 Memories Of Where I Was

Oh no! It’s the World Trade Center! Came a Yell from Bobby in the other room.

Mom and I scurried to the living room as fast as we could where we began to watch the news in horror and complete shock.

Our hearts were filled with grief and our heads told us that it had to be a mistake. That morning I held on to Bobby a little tighter when we bid farewell.

Mom and I were left alone to watch the news of what transpired during the night. We were in South Korea with a 12 hour time difference so it happened late evening Korea time. We weren’t watching the news the night before so we completely missed everything till we woke the next morning which would have been September 11 around 6:00 pm EST back in the States. Mom arrived to Korea approximately 1 week before that horrible incident. Our hearts went out to her being so far away from dad and home but she was contented to be there with us. She was with us for a total of 3 weeks and for me it helped to ease the pain having mom there with us.

Mom and I mourned it seemed all morning when we finally turned off the news and walked to a nearby coffee shop. We sat there just the two of us with long faces all alone and so far away from home. The Koreans felt our pain it seemed as complete strangers offered their condolences.

It was fitting that the following Sunday we would mourn with the nation in the World’s largest Church which is in Seoul South Korea. We had made our plans for Seoul long before Sept 11th to spend our weekend there and mom requested that place of worship weeks before she came to Korea. The service was interpreted in English where we had head sets so there were no language barriers whatsoever. It was a beautiful service where our hearts were touched and even though we weren’t home we felt loved half way around the world.

The following is a snippet from wikipedia.com

Yoido Full Gospel Church is a Pentecostal Christian church on Yeouido Island in Seoul, South Korea. Numbering over 800,000 members in 2006, it is the largest known congregation of Christian adherents in the world. Founded and led by Mr David Yonggi Cho since 1958, it is one of the most internationally visible manifestations of Korean Christianity.

We learned that flags were hard to come by and wanted to give mom & dad our flag to hang in their store. We purchased a beautiful 4’ X 6’ flag months before at the Arizona Memorial in Hawaii. It was a special flag that hung for a day at the Memorial and came with a certificate that was signed and dated and also gave the date that it proudly waved over the memorial. Tears streamed down moms face when we presented her with the flag. They proudly hung ‘The Red White & Blue’ in the center of the store from their 20 foot ceiling and in some way we felt blessed to proudly wave ‘Old Glory’.

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