By J1 Reporter Clara Stalnaker 

Sept. 11, 2001, started like any normal day, but soon it turned into a day no one will ever forget. 

At 8:46 a.m. the unthinkable happened. A plane crashed right into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York. Everyone thought it was just an accident until at 9:03, when another plane crashed into the south tower. People all around the world were watching on the news as New York went into a frenzy. Everyone was stunned and confused, especially high school counselor, Mrs. Anna Sparwasser.

At the time, Sparwasser was working as a Counselor at Von Steuben High School in Chicago, Illinois. She was in her office when another teacher came and told her the horrific news. “At first we thought it was just a single passenger plane that had an accident…We quickly learned otherwise.” 

She said no one knew what was going on and all she could do was wait it out. Her brother worked in the pentagon at the time and she said it was hard to reach him. The only thing on her mind was wondering what was happening and if her family was okay. The only form of communication was landline telephones but the lines were jammed, so it was very hard to contact anyone. Not knowing what was going on or who was hurt left Sparwasser with only one thing to do- wait. 

At the time, Sparwasser was living with her good friend Mara, and they didn’t know what to do. When they got done with work, they decided to go downtown to the cathedral. When they got there, she said there were people just filing into the church. It wasn’t a mass or special service, it was just people from all over Chicago coming to pray and cry. Sparwasser said, “So, whether they were Catholic or not, I have no idea. But the church was full and people just kept coming in.”  

Sparwasser had known the priest there and so she went up to him and asked what he was going to do. He said that he was going to say mass. So, he made an announcement saying that anyone who wanted to stay could and they would all pray together. Sparwasser said, “It’s like you didn’t know where to go, and the only thing that brought you somewhere was God.” Sparwasser and her friend stayed for hours. When they were going home they realized that the city was quiet. And that was crazy because a city like Chicago is never quiet. It shows that the whole city, and nation, was in mourning and shock of what had happened.

The world has changed so much since then. One main example that Sparwasser said that changed everything is travel. Back then you didn’t even have to show an ID and now people have to go through long lines, identification, and intense security. 

So, how did it change the nation? “The only way I can put it is that it brought us together for a while, and then it didn’t,” Sparwasser said. 

Sparwasser said that the point of learning about 9/11 today is for young kids to understand what it was like. When students learn about it in school, all teachers talk about is surface level information. To them the people that died are just another number, but when the nation goes deeper into it, and asks people who lived through it what it was like for them, people can realize that every one of those “numbers” had a life that they thought they would go back to. 

Overall, 9/11 was a horrific day in U.S. history. People learned what true fear looked like. The people who died, their families are still grieving, and the survivors are still suffering from PTSD. Sparwasser said that young people need to learn about the deeper level of information because people can never fully understand what the heroes and victims of 9/11 went through. She said that if the nation takes the time to try, then all people can be there for them in more ways than they can ever understand.

Thank you Anna Sparwasser for sharing your memory.
If you have a memory you would like to share, add it in the comments below.

Never Forget