Sally said goodbye that morning to Steven. She said it in a way that showed she was still upset about the day before. He left a half drunk cup of coffee and his tie on the kitchen table with a small note. “I’m sorry.”

Teresa was late for her meeting which had been scheduled for 9 in the morning. When she came home that afternoon, layers of ashes covering her, her family broke down in tears.

Sally had just dropped off the kids at school when her phone rang. She picked it up only to find silence.

All she wanted to do was take a shower and lay down. But she had a ton of errands to do and a PowerPoint presentation for work.

Theresa was in a state of shock, she didn’t remember anything about her getting home. It had been 7 hours since the towers collapsed and destroyed the office she worked in and God knows who survived… she thought about Gina who was 6 months pregnant, John, David and Gloria. She thought about all of the people she had met in the elevators going up and going down… but how and why did she make it home?

Sally parked in the driveway and floated into the house. The phone was ringing. She picked it up and fell to the floor.

Steven’s parents were at the door when she came to. They were hoping, praying for a miracle.

The TV was off because they couldn’t stand watching the planes hit their targets sending thousands to an unscheduled departure and millions into an unscheduled forever state of mourning.

Stevens mom went to clear the table but Sally stopped her. She saw the coffee cup and she drank the cold remains. She wanted him inside of her…

Schools began to close, children rushed home and flurries of ashes fell from the sky.

Daddy isn’t coming home…
Mommy isn’t coming home…
Son’s, daughters… never coming home.

Miracles do happen and they come disguised as the stuff in life we take for granted. Love, abilities to move, see and hear. A sunrise, a sunset, a harvest moon… broken hearts and the ability to heal. Infinite miracles we simply take as if we have earned them.

September 11, 2001 was a miraculous day for the ones who survived, yet, it’s hard to find miracles in a pile of death and destruction.

Among the dead and the destroyed, are the freedoms which were stolen from us. The plans and the dreams stolen, the lives who may have changed this world from it’s downward spiral. The lives who may have found cures for what ails so many.

We will never know the impact that the ones who were murdered could have made. We will never know…

For the Sallys and the Theresas, the wives, the mothers and the husbands, fathers and children who were deprived of a life that should’ve been.