Tag Archives: 9/11

September 11: 25 Years Later

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“Oh say, can you see
By the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed
At the twilight’s last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars
Through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watched
Were so gallantly, yeah, streaming?

And the rockets’ red glare
The bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave”.

Photo by Thomas E. Franklin.

For our country. For our flag. For all those who were lost. For all those left behind. For all those who still remember.

Never forget.

#september11 #25years #neverforget
#nyc# dcpentagon #shanksville

9/11: 15 Years Later

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Sept 11

Photo by:  Thomas Franklin  for The Bergen Record 

This picture was on the front page of every paper in America on 9/13/01. I remember distinctly wanting to go out and buy one after I saw one of the news anchors hold up a copy. I picked it up around 6pm that evening & thanked God again for sparing all of those that I love from any harm that day. Less than an hour later, I found out my grandmother died. Luckily, she was in the comfort, peace and safety of her own home. 9/11 changed our world forever. Two days later, my own world changed forever. To this day I believe she spent her first days in heaven cooking her famous sauce for all the victims, especially the 343 firefighters, 60 police officers and eight paramedics. I hope they enjoyed her food & company as much as I did. That 1-2 punch of 9/11 & my grandmother’s death left me with a stronger faith than I have ever known. May we never forget the lessons that tragedy taught us, or the lives of all those who died. 

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Me & my grandmother, Ida, a/k/a Idie, as I affectionately called her.  .