Where were you on 9/11???

I can’t believe that today is the 7th anniversary of that fateful day! Do you remember what you were doing when you heard about the Twin Towers collapsing?? I thought today might be a good opportunity to tell my story about 9/11…..

I was living with my siblings in Hawaii up until the beginning of September, 2001. My parents had moved back to Taiwan to start a business 5 years prior but had recently decided to come back to the United States. My mom came back first and decided to take my younger brother and sister to Vegas where an uncle of ours and his family were living. My older sister had gotten a job offer from our wealthy Chinese cousin in New York City. He promised to help us get settled and buy her a new car when she moved there. She asked me to go with her because she didn’t want to move all the way across the country alone. I was sick of Hawaii at the time so I decided to go also. My dad would remain in Taiwan until we had gotten settled in our new homes.

My mom, siblings, and I packed up my older sister’s 2 bedroom apartment in less than a week, threw away and sold a lot of things, and were ready to leave. We flew to Vegas first, my mom, my 2 sisters, my brother and I. My older sister wanted to spend a few days there since her one of her best friends was living there, also because we were about to part ways to settle in different parts of the country for the first time. We ended up leaving Vegas on September 8th and flew into NYC for the first time.

We were both immediately in complete culture shock when we got there, having grown up in Hawaii! I was excited but my older sister looked terrified from the moment we stepped off the plane. We were met at the airport by my cousin’s business partner. Keep in mind that we had just basically packed up our lives in Hawaii so we had a TON of boxes and luggage that we had just lugged from Vegas. He took us to have a bite to eat at a Chinese restaurant before dropping us off at the apartment our cousin had gotten for us.

As it turned out, the “apartment” was someone’s attic that they had cheaply renovated to house a tenant. There was a tiny bathroom and a kitchen at the end of what was supposed to be like a studio apartment. It couldn’t have been more than 600 square feet. My cousin’s partner also informed us that our rent was $900 and it was due within a few days!!!! Before he left he also told my older sister we could go shopping for a car the next day and asked her how much money she had for a down payment!!!!!! I think her jaw must have dropped to the floor, since it was to her understanding that we were going to be set up when we arrived in NYC. We had almost no money after all of our moving expenses and spending a last few days in Vegas. She didn’t reveal this to our cousin’s partner at first, but after he left us to our first night in our new pad, she broke down and started crying.  I guess being a lot younger at the time, I wasn’t as afraid since I was relying on my older sister mostly. I can understand how she must have felt a lot more now after growing up a bit and living on my own. She called my mom to tell her the situation. Mom suggested that we should just get on a plane and meet up with everyone again in Vegas where we could stay with friends until we got settled. We would still have to start over, but at least our family would be together again. My older sister agreed and prepared herself to let our cousin know the next day! We had only been in New York for a few hours and wanted to leave already! Honestly, I would have stayed if my sister had been for it, but I’m glad now that I didn’t.

Luckily, another one of my older sister’s best friends she had grown up with was living in Manhattan at the time in a studio apartment. The next day, after my sister explained why we were leaving to my very shocked and offended cousin, we got a ride into the city and got dropped off with our ton of stuff at her friend’s door. My sister bought us return tickets to Vegas with the last of our money, but in the meantime had 2 days to spend in the city before the next available flight. The studio apartment was tiny, as most New York City apartments are, and was without cable. We spent the next two days walking around the bustling city seeing the sites and getting a feel of the Big Apple. It was a lot of fun to say the least. Finally, at 4 AM on September 11th, we left for the airport to catch our flight back to Vegas and our family. We got there on time and had to clear up a big mess with our tickets. For some reason, our reservation didn’t show up and we had to rebook them. We almost didn’t get on the scheduled flight, but it’s a good thing we did.

We flew out of the city at 6 AM finally, with one scheduled lay over in Kansas City. The flight was smooth, but as we hovered over Kansas City and came in for a landing among some green fields, and cows even….a weird feeling came over me. I had never been afraid of flying but had an anxious feeling just as we were about to touch ground.

When we both walked into the Kansas City terminal, a radio announcement came over the airport speakers telling all passengers to get their luggage until hearing more information. Confused, my sister and I managed to collect all of our HUGE boxes and luggage while I listened to people’s cell phone conversations around me. I heard someone say over their phone that the World Trade Center had blown up. Even more confused, I left my sister with all of our stuff to seek out a news television. I was horrified when I finally found one. The first images I saw were the famous footage of the first plane hitting one of the towers, then it collapsing. I ran back to my sister who was still oblivious that our world had just changed, outside of our own personal moving fiasco. Her eyes were as big as saucers when I told her.

Now we were stuck with another problem. We became informed that the flights were cancelled until further notice. We had almost no money and nowhere to stay. We heard from other people that churches were opening up as shelters. Needless to say, we were both devestated. While, we were gathering our luggage together, a tall, good looking man in his late twenties had been talking to my sister. She told him about our mess in New York after moving suddenly from Hawaii, commenting that it must have been fate that we ended up leaving. He curiously asked her where we planned to go now, to which she said we were still figuring it out. Then the guy introduced himself as Jesse. Told us that he was from Atlanta on his way to Callifornia for business. He was planning on getting a room at a Holiday Inn, why not go with him and he would get us a room as well! Normally, my sister and I would be pretty wary of a situation like this but after being broke and down on our luck, we decided to take him up on his offer. A cot in a church for the next few days was not very enticing either.  Besides, he seemed harmless, even a bit of a southern gentleman.

We tried to get all of our stuff in one cab but it was soon obvious that it was not happening. Jesse then paid for a second cab to get us to the motel, which also happened to be quite a ways away. The fare must have been over 100 for 2 cars. Jesse paid it though without even thinking. My sister and I had both already thanked him many times and he just responded that he just hoped if he was in a similar situation that someone would do the same for him.

We ended up getting a double room with two beds since rooms were scarce. The motel was literally in the middle of nowhere with only a gas station and Denny’s restaurant within walking distance. Jesse bought us dinner there that night where the three of us talked a little bit. Jesses told us he was the owner of an indoor lighting company, was 28 years old, and pretty successful. He was on his way to California and would probably have friends drive out from Atlanta to pick him up the next day. My sister asked him what his last name was. He told us it was “chance”….Jesse Chance. (“Just-a-chance?????)  We thought it was a really weird coincidence after all the bullshit we had just been through.

Back at the motel room, the only things on TV were the footage of the WTC. I missed Hawaii and felt extremely depressed. I thought the world was ending. The flights were cancelled for the next two days.

The next afternoon, Jesse’s friends arrived to drive him to California and just as quickly as we met him, he was gone. He gave my sister his  business card and offered us some money to help us out. We had barely enough money for one more night in the motel and cab fare back to the aiport the next day so she refused. He had done too much for us already.

The next day, the flights were finally rescheduled. My older sister closed her bill before we left and was surprised when the front desk asked what card she wanted to use. Jesse had left his credit card open for us, just in case.  That had never really happened to either of us before. A good samaritan just out of the blue. He was completely respectful of us the entire time. He was even just a bit mysterious.

We finally got on our flight back to Vegas after security went through ALL of our huge boxes, even opening books and rifling through clothes. One even advised us not to “travel with so much luggage” from now on. My sister flatly told him that we were moving. LOL.

When we finally got back to Vegas my older sister tried to call Jesse to say thank you once again. Curiously, his number on the business card he had given us was not working. She tried again several times but we were always unable to get back in touch with him. Who the heck was he?????? An angel perhaps??? Haha, probably not. But I guess after all of that, I am more apt to believing that they just might exist.

Telling this story today makes me want to go out and do something nice for someone else. We should all do that on 9/11 instead of focusing on the tragedy that occurred.