3/1/10

Hi Readers,
Happy March. Today's entry is about who I met this morning when I didn't take the subway.
I had a doctor's appointment in downtown Brooklyn and decided to take a cab into work from there. I knew it would be pricey but it would soothe my anxiety and I would get to enjoy the sunshine for a little while longer. (I work in a cubicle with no windows or natural light of any kind).
Anyway, my cab driver was a nice man from Senegal, West Africa. I was happy to sit quietly in the back of the cab when he turned to me and said "I can't help but think of 9/11 every time I cross the Brooklyn Bridge." My first thought was "EYES ON THE ROAD!" but after that we had a very interesting conversation about our experiences on 9/11.
He was driving a full car of passengers down from 57th Street to 23rd Street when the first plane hit. The passenger sitting next to him tried calling her husband - a man who worked on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center. By the time they got down to 23rd Street the towers were both falling. The woman was still unable to get ahold of her husband. She tried to pay the cabbie but he refused. He said "Today is about all of us. I can not take your money." He never found out what happened to her or her husband.
I've had reason to tell about my experience on 9/11 many times but sharing it with this cab driver, a stranger, was very calming. We are two very different people from gender to age to ethnicity to life experiences but we commiserated about 9/11 as though we were the same. It was very powerful.

Hopefully my next entry will be more entertaining.

xoxo,
Susan