Every year we head to New England with a stopover in Boston. In the past we spent time with my sister Susan and her husband Scotty, at their then Boston residence on the water across from Logan International Airport not far from their permanent residence in Nantucket. On Monday, September 10th 2001, we walked across the wharf with Scotty to have dinner at a local restaurant on the pier. We retired early as Scotty was flying to New York for an early meeting in the morning.  The next morning I received a call from Susan, who was in Nantucket, inquiring if we had the TV on. As one does when your sibling kindly informs one I need to watch TV I quickly became aware of the events unfolding in front of our eyes. When I went into the living room I saw helicopters hovering in front of the living room windows. We were next door to the Boston Navy yard home of the USS Constitution the nation's oldest commissioned ship. Maybe they were being cautious with all that was going on. I received another call from Susan suggesting we leave as we were in a tall building. We then decided the best thing was to leave town. We packed up and went down to the lobby where we were greeted by police and fireman. We were quickly escorted out of the immediate area and finally out of Boston in record time. We headed to Hyannis with a final destination of Nantucket. The drive was a long quiet one and half hours to Hyannis. When we arrived at the Barnstable Airport in Hyannis, we learned all aircraft had been grounded. Our mode of transportation then changed to the slow boat to Nantucket. The two and half hour trip seemed like forever as we sat on the top deck with only the sound of the ship and the news channel on TV. With no air traffic the quiet blue sky was unnerving considering what was taking place in our country. Who can forget where they were that tragic day.

 

Note:   Not knowing, we had been staying in a condo one floor below Bin Laden’s family who was later escorted out of the country by orders of the President.  Susan had called me because she received a call from Scotty who was just outside of the World Trade Center when the first plane hit. He was there to attend a meeting with Victor, a business friend. It seemed like a life time before the next call came.

 

The following is Victor's account of that tragic day.

 

(It is my understanding since this was originally written, Victor's account has been highly recognized and has been nominated to be displayed at the memorial at Ground Zero.)