On this morning each year, I think back to that bright, blue September day twelve years ago--and I look forward, surveying how our world has changed in the intervening years.
For this Mom, there's a personal benchmark: an essay I wrote about my son, shortly after the Towers fell. This essay struck a chord with many in 2011, and it has become one of my most widely-read works.
On this day each year, at this early hour, I re-read it, too. And I remember ....
On September 14, 2001, I sat down at my desk with a heavy heart. My task: to write the month's lead article for the newsletter I published at that time at OrganizedHome.Com.
But just three days after the collapse of the Twin Towers, it was impossible to think about cleaning closets or decluttering the pantry.
I started to write, anyway--and this piece was the result, two hours later. It was the cry of my heart as the mother of a United States Marine, a son who had been called to alert in response to the attacks on our country.
A reader suggested I share it here, on this day, to remind us all that Memorial Day has a meaning beyond the barbeques and the beach.
Here it is, right down to the old-style format of our site on that day. Enjoy--and remember: