Letter To My Grand-loves About September 11th

Letter to my Grand-loves,

Today is September 11th and while you are too young to remember what happened (except for Abby, because she’s the oldest), one day you will learn about it in school or your parents will talk to you about it.

There are certain days in my lifetime that I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing. The day John F. Kennedy was shot. The day Bobby Kennedy was shot. The day Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. The day Elvis died. The day Jim Croce died. And the day the planes hit the twin towers and the Pentagon, September 11th. You can read more about it here, but read it with your parents. It’s hard for me to comprehend such violence and I am much older than you are. Understanding atrocities is something I will never be able to do. How I wish we didn’t live in a world where you have to see such terrible things, but we do.

I was working on the computer September 11th, 2001, when the planes hit the first tower. I watched in wide eyed amazement as the second tower was hit, and then the Pentagon. I couldn’t take my eyes off the television, no one could. We went to a volleyball game that night and there was a television in the lobby. Many of the parents stood and watched news coverage while their daughters played volleyball in the gym. It was as if we thought that by watching long enough we could make sense of what was happening, but of course that didn’t happen.

I cried. The world cried. Families mourned. Hearts were broken. What did it mean? What would happen next? Was life as we knew it over? It was a very scary time.

Now, 19 years later, I still don’t understand it. I look back and wonder why it had to happen. I remember reading a book once entitled, “Why bad things happen to good people.” It was a good book but didn’t really answer the question for me. Here’s the explanation that I believe in.

There is good and there is evil. All good things come from God. He set the world in motion and part of His plan was to let mankind choose good or evil. One day Jesus will come back and take all who did good and obeyed God’s commands to Heaven. Those who chose evil will have to answer for their deeds. As long as this world exists people will choose one or the other.

Bless those people who choose to do good. Bless all the firefighters, law enforcement and first responders who rush in to help when danger threatens. Bless all those who lost loved ones on September 11th, 2001. And God please bless my Grand-loves and their parents all the days of their lives.

And while I can’t understand wanting to harm others I know that it will continue to happen. I also know that people who do evil want us to be afraid of them. They are like bullies on a playground; they want to intimidate everyone else so they can have their own way. And that can’t happen. We have to stand up to the bullies of the world. Like President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.” We simply can not live our lives afraid of bullies.

I hope and pray there are no days like September 11th during your life time but if there are remember this….in the end Jesus wins. Good WILL triumph over evil.

Keep the faith, my grand-loves. Everything is going to be okay.

Nana