9/11-where I was--where WE are

Ten Years
Heather McKeown
Jetblue Flight Attendant


The big question for my generation was, “What were you doing when President Kennedy was shot?”  Of course, with that moment in time emblazoned, tattooed and branded onto my mind’s eye, it’s easy to relate how I felt and dealt with that assassination.

For the under-forty set of today, the new marker on the graduated cylinder of Time, is “Where were you when the planes hit the towers?”

The fact that I was in my kitchen, in my pajamas, drinking my coffee and preparing to go for a jog before opening my massage clinic is such a soft cushion of where and when for me.  My son, David, was at Rennselear Polytechnic in Troy, New York at the time.  The phone rang and he said, “MOM!  TURN ON THE TV!”   I did.   “THIS IS CRAZY!” said Dave.

Yes.  Crazy.

One of my best friends had been inviting me to join her massage team at The Muscular Therapy Center of New York for years and years.  Right after 9/11, I did so.  Center of Manhattan, a good jog from the twin towers graveyard.  I flew from Burlington to JFK airport every Saturday and back to my Vermont clinic every Tuesday.  It was the least I could do to prove to my son that LIFE GOES ON, crazy or not.  Life goes on...

After a year or so at my friend’s clinic, my daughter, Holly, told me she was moving to Florida and also pregnant!  I applied to Jetblue Airways because, with a job there, my children and I would fly for free and, no matter where they lived, we could always get together.

The training was not what I expected.  The terrorist attacks had broadened the scope of flight attendant responsibilities.  Awareness was the keyword and we were grilled to perfection in the shadow of 9/11.

So many folks ask me, “Aren’t you afraid to be up there?”

Sometimes.  Yet, I’m too old to be in the army, air force, navy or coast guard, so being ‘up there’ feels like I’m just a tiny bit closer to being part of an intervention.  We’re trained, we’re strong, we’re alert and we’re ready.  I don’t wish to tempt fate but I’ll be darned if I’m going to sit back and let someone else do it all.  I think I learned this from my fellow Vermonters.  Jump in with both feet is how all of the Vermont folks ‘do life’,   isn’t  it?

For this new Time-defining question, I want to say, “That’s where I was but because of that, THIS is where I am.”  A fuller, more aware and holding up a symbolic middle finger to the terrorists.  Yeah, I was in my jammies in a cozy Vermont kitchen on 9/11 but now I’m up there and trained to handle the bad guys one-on-one.  That’s what we do up there, you know.  We watch.  We listen.  We take care of each other and the traveling public.  The flight crews that died as they crashed into buildings or were run to ground did not die in vain.  God bless them.  God bless them.  God bless them.


Thanks Heather ..... and forever keep that middle finger raised