A Day We'll Never Forget

Where were you on Sept. 11, 2001...I was working at Old Main on the campus of Penn State University when the twin towers were hit and fell.

I arrived at work around 7:00 AM getting the office ready for the day, my coffee and checking emails. Around 9:00 someone working on the same floor came into our office and said that one of the towers was hit. My boss, the  junior editor and myself all ran down the hall to where there was a TV just in time to see the 2nd tower get hit. The rest of the day was sitting in front of the TV hearing all the news footage. The horror and disbelieve that this was happening... here to us...America.

I only worked part time at PSU so when my morning was done I headed home thinking about my friend up in Erie who has 2 brother in-laws that were NYC firefighters. When I got home I tried several times to call my friend and finally reaching her around 3:00 PM. She said her one brother in-law was not working that day but the other one had been and they had not heard from him at all. No one knew where Bobby was. I prayed for her...for him...for their family. I'm not even sure I made dinner that night.  As it was, Bobby was to get off work at 9:00 AM after doing an overnight shift. He called his wife at 8:40 AM to say he would be off at 9:00 and that was the last anyone heard from him. A street where he and his brothers grew up was renamed in his honor in Manhattan.

                                                                     Robert Joseph Foti
                                                                     Ladder 7

Today... 10 years later... I remember as if it was yesterday.