This entry was made after the events of 2001. Since the last dated entry Gavriel was born, July 17, 2000. Throughout the pregnancy Sean kept calling Gavi "The Stealth Baby". At each visit to the midwife, just as she found his heartbeat, he'd roll away making us start all over. Throughout the pregnancy Sean was counselling a couple dealing with problems in their pregnancy, and eventually a still-birth. It kept him distant and worried.
My parents arrived two weeks before Gavi's due date (July 17). The morning of the 17th we all (with the exception of Sean, who had broken his ankle the week before, and was at work to get some rest) headed off to the Bishop Museum to see the T-Rex Named Sue. Jesse was so excited. As we were driving I felt a few twinges, but wasn't worried. Jesse took one close up look at the full size teeth of a T-rex, and spent the rest of the morning fascinated, but in my arms. By the time the planetarium show was over it was time to pick up Sean and head to Tripler Army Medical Center. We welcomed Gavi not too long after.
Just 10 months later came the last entry (May 2001). We PCS'ed in June, headed for Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base with stops in Merrick, NY (visiting my parents- I think the kids believe that whenever we move we have to stay with their grandparents for at least a month.) and Norfolk, VA for an officer's school Sean needed to complete. We headed to Camp Lejeune in mid-August, staying at the BOQ for about two weeks. My father came down with us to check out our new digs.
On September 10, 2001 the kids, my dad, and I piled into our van to head to New York for six weeks while Sean was at Mountain Warfare Training Camp in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Sean was leaving the following morning. The plan for Dad, the kids, and me was to drive to Dover Air Force Base and stay the night in the military hotel there. I was driving when we got to Dover. It was the middle of the night. Dad and the kids were sleeping, but I was wide awake. I figured I'd drive until I was tired and then switch with Dad. Maybe we'd get home a day earlier. Maybe we stop. We kept going.
We crossed the Verrazano Bridge just moments before the first plane hit the WTC. As we crossed the bridge I tuned the radio to 1010 WINS for the traffic report. We heard the news, then crossed to a clear place where we could see the smoke pouring from the towers. It's an image burned in my memory.
Had we stopped at Dover AFB we'd have been stuck there indefinitely. Sean, safe on a plane with a battalion of Marines was grounded near Salt Lake City. The world had changed.
I wrote these words on September 25- It's been a year since I've ventured into the heart of New York City. So much has changed. There's an eerie feeling as I ride the train. I am overtaken by a need to hug my children close; a need thwarted since they are safe at home with their grandparents.
One year later, I wrote this:
Where were you when the WTC fell? That question has replaced "where were you when Kennedy was shot?" Or for a younger generation, "Where were you when John Lennon was shot?" Like everyone else, I remember the morning with great clarity. I had just arrived back in NYC after sending Sean off to his first Marine deployment. He was in the air as we crossed into NY, and watched the Towers burn.
A year later a lot has changed. Sean was transferred to the base chapel so he won't be deploying. We have a new baby girl, Keren, born April 25, 2002, and our country is at war with terrorism. But as we come together to remember the events of 9/11 across our country, I took part in a very different memorial. At Camp Lejeune we spent 9/11/2002 building a sukkah for the base chapel. I could not think of a better way to fight those who would crush religious freedom than to celebrate it by working with US Marines and Sailors building a sukkah on a military base by the chapel building shared by all religions.
