Remembering 9-11

This drawing was made by a child during the week following the attacks of September 11, 2001. It was rescued from being destroyed by rain from the front wall of a Chelsea elementary school by blogger +Joe Jervis, Joe.My.God., on September 18, 2001.

"The Hugging Towers"

Please read Joe's touching original post about how he found the picture, J.M.G.: "One Week Later" (reposting September 18, 2006).

Joe has donated the painting to the museum which now resides on the site of the former World Trade Center.

9/11 Again

Honor the dead by caring for the living!

I took these pictures on this day last year at the 9/11 Memorial site (SLurl) in SecondLife.

The effect of the two transparent and ghostly towers looming over the surrounding buildings is a powerful and beautiful reminder of the horrible day when the towers disappeared from the skyline and all our lives were changed for the foreseeable future.

I remember that awful day well. It feels like a lifetime ago but is only eleven years. The day before I had come home from a five day stay at the hospital where I had been urgently admitted when my blood count (Hb) was found to be only 59 g/l (In a healthy man it should be around 130-170 g/l).

They never found out where I had been bleeding slowly over a very long period despite probing my body through every open orifice with a variety of instruments. However, I was sent home after having received a few blood transfusions and been instructed on how to recognize the warning signs. (As long as the palms of your hands are reddish your blood count is over 120 g/l, below that they turn grayish/white.)

The day after I got a telephone call from my father telling me to turn on the television set because something terrible was happening in New York. I turned on the TV and sat in front of it the rest of the day and long into the night. I watched and cried while the second plane flew into the second tower and then again when the first tower collapsed and then the second and then listening to the guesses all night long about who and what had planned and executed these atrocities.