Worn
The faces of 9/11 look older now.
The actual photographs, hair styles, clothing, are aging. America has moved on and it’s been so long since that horrific day that the people we lost are starting to look different. I remember the first time I went through the memorial of the victims, on the first anniversary, they looked like people I knew, so fresh, so painfully relevant. Now, thirteen years later, they are starting to look like older photographs of the past.
It occurs to me their loved ones will not be updating frames or websites with new shots, or current vacation memories. Their lives stopped and they are there, in that place, forever.
I’m sure families have grown, cut their hair, bought different clothes, listen to different music now. Maybe there have been trips, new decks built, movies seen, graduations, weddings…What must that be like? To leave someone behind in 2001?
The memories of September 11th slowly shift farther to the back of my mind every year. I hardly ever think about it anymore. I go back on the anniversary, the faces, the video, and I’m there again, for a moment, but now the moment is different, dated.
I think that is how it’s supposed to go, life, but it feels a little sad. My thoughts are with the families of those lost. May they find comfort in the warmed wrinkled edges of their memories and peace in the moving forward.
My thoughts from the laundry room. Rest Now.
acceptance family history hurt love meaning pain Sept 11th America healing memories pain people September 11th thoughts
I once noted that the students did not have my background. A student in the seventh grade today did not experience the horror of 9-11. They only can be told about it. Same with Pearl Harbor, or anything else in the past. We move on and forget quickly.
So true. We really do. Maybe that is how we cope? I don’t know, but there are times to remember. Thank you for reading, Barry.
“…the warm wrinkled edges of their memories….” Oh my, what a beautiful post, Tracy. Thank you.