9/11 Anniversary

I hate this day.

 

That's OK. Most people hate Mondays.

 

Tell me why.

 

Come on.

 

As I've mentioned over the years here, from 2007-15, I worked at a company which suffered major losses on 9/11 (I obviously was not there in 2001). I've spent some time with some of the families and a lot of time with my co-workers who were in different offices that day or who simply missed work.

What's amazing to me is how people cope differently. Some of the relatives, especially the parents, lived with it on their sleeves every single day. Some co-workers barely have to be prompted to tell their good luck stories, like it's a bet that they won.

On the other hand, two of the people that I worked most closely with (my boss, who was running late that day and the head of the business that I did most of my work for, who was on a temporary assignment in London) barely can talk about it. They often don't go to the memorial service and will talk about the chaos to the business in the aftermath, but very little about the people who were lost.

I often felt like a vulture, because when people heard that I worked for this company, they told me their 9/11 stories. Even yesterday, at the job which I've had for nearly 2 years, many people just stopped by my office to talk about 9/11. It actually got to the point when I worked at this company that I started to tell people that I worked for one of their lesser known affiliates, so I didn't have to engage in a 9/11 discussion multiple times a week.