9/11

On a much more serious note - and deliberately posting close to the actual time - I cannot let today pass without remembering how I sat here at my desk five years ago and watched horrific images from the World Trade Centre appear on my screen.

A very dear friend was in New York on that morning - she was due to fly out on a plane that might have been one of the ones hijacked for those terrible attacks. That brought everything so very close to home for me - even though I was thousands of miles away. I sat here, tears streaming down my cheeks and I prayed. My friend was safe, thank God, but so many people were not.

In 2003, I attended the RWA Conference in New York and on our last day in the city the BM and I made a pilgrimage to Ground Zero - just to acknowledge our personal sorrow at what had happened. Our taxi driver was a delightful, articulate interesting and interested man - who joked that we should be afraid to get into the cab with him as he was from Iran. I couldn't have been less afraid - he couldn't have been more friendly and helpful. He even at one point switched off the meter because he couldn't get us to exactly where we needed to be because of traffic diversions and so we shoud have had to pay for the extra trip he made around to approach from a different angle. A little gesture that just added to the poignancy of the day - from a man whose country some might label as the enemy.

At the site itself, the thing that most affected me, blurred my eyes with more tears was the huge, rough made cross made up of broken, twisted metal girders that had once been part of the World Trade Centre. That's the image that I'm posting today. No other words are needed - except

IN MEMORIAM 9/11