Memory of 9/11 Five Years On

The morning of September 11, 2001 I went to the Logan Airport in Boston to fly back to Canada to make my first class of the term at Brock University that was scheduled for that Tuesday evening. Getting to the departure gate went very smoothly. The security measures were more or less none existent. My host from Harvard University was able to accompany me as far as the terminal gate and waved goodbye as I walked down the ramp to the 'plane. When the captain announced that we would be returning to the terminal and that we should retrieve our luggage and see the ground agent to book another flight, it seemed like a routine travel delay. While standing in line to trade in my ticket, I could see the TV in the airport bar tuned to CNN showing the first 'plane crashing into the World Trade Center in New York City. Shortly thereafter the Logan Airport was closed and we all were ordered to leave. I heaved my bags and took the subway back to Cambridge, Massachusetts where I had been staying. Walking across Harvard Yard on that sunny crisp autumn morning I passed the students chatting and laughing as they headed to their lectures not yet aware of what had happened. I soon after learnt that two of the 'planes that crashed that morning had originated from the Logan Airport. So I realized to my horror that many of the people I had seen a few hours before hustling to their flights that morning were now among the dead. A few days later, the Airport still closed, I returned to St. Catharines via Buffalo on a Greyhound bus.