My September 11th story

I know that this date has become the "What were you doing when Kennedy was shot story" of our generation, where everyone commiserates about what happened to them on this day seven years ago, but a lot happened that day for my family too.
I was in Philly at the time, taking my older brother Britt to the airport as he was leaving for his mission that day. As luck would have it, he was leaving very early that day and we, my whole family and I, were there to see him off. My little sister Skye, was very young at the time and she was playing in the little play area right next to my brothers' gate (remember when you could actually see someone come and leave while you were outside the gate door?). Mom says for everyone to say goodbye to britt, and so Skye comes running over, but trips, falls and busts her head on some plastic part of the apparatus and gives herself a HUGE cut on the head, which of course bled everywhere. My mom, torn between helping Skye and seeing Britt leave, tells my other brother Perry to get some napkins from the nearby Burger King for her head.
Skye was being helped by the medical staff there at the airport, until they told us she needed to go to the hospital. So, there we are, happily driving to the hospital until Britts' then girlfriend, now wife, calls frantically asking if we had listened to the news and if Britt was on that plane.
We flipped on the news and found out what was happening in New York. Tragic as it was, Britts' plane would not have gone north to go to Salt Lake. Insert sigh of relief here.
So Mom decides to drop off Devin and Perry at school as there is nothing else they can do. But when we are dropping Perry off, we hear about the plane downed near Pittsburgh, and Mom looses it. We want to make sure it wasn't Britt, but he was leaving on his mission, so he had no cell phone (plus, this was back in the day when everyone did not have cell phones-usually one per family-I know scary right?).
So my Mom, dealing with Skye in the hospital and now thinking Britts' plane could have been downed, calls the airline-which I am sure was fielding about a million calls at that point. According to them, Britt was somewhere in the Midwest, St Louis I think. And as we are finalizing things with Skye, Britt calls from PHL airport. The story with him was that apparently the first plane hit the tower and word got to nearby PHL just before his plane took off and they grounded all planes. However, they also closed off the city as we were close to NYC. So, no one was getting in or out. So, how to get to him? Well, my Mom called a close friend in our ward and she bullied her way into Philly to get him. But then the next hurdle...as he has no cell phone...how to know where he is? And this lady also had to small children keep in mind. So she paged him, over and over again until Britt, who was never a great listener (haha) finally heard her and they came home.
As you can imagine, much crying, hugging and all around good stuff at our home, until we all realized...how was Britt to get to the MTC? They grounded all flights for a long time, and with Britt being set apart...being at home was slightly excruciating. So, Britt takes a Greyhound bus from PA to SLC, arriving at the MTC so nasty and stinky that even the uber-sweet MTC receptionist tells him where he can get some fresh clothes and for heavens' sake a shower.
So what did we all learn from this ordeal? Everyone needs a cell phone, don't let your kids play in those hazardous airport playgrounds (which they really don't have anymore so all you moms out there can rest easy), and always always answer pages in the airport.
So that is what I was doing that day, not the saddest thing to happen that day by far, but stressful nonetheless. But those who know our family well would expect no less! But as we all look back seven years ago, we can all be thankful for our families, our friends and for all those who helped save people by performing selfless acts of the best kinds of service there is. And I hope that the people who thought doing such a task would weaken our country, and our resolve have seen that they were sadly mistaken. As everyone remembers seven years ago's Sept 11th, we think of pain, sadness, loss, but also unification. God Bless the USA!!!