9 11 at Yale-New Haven Hospital

September 11th, 2001: From now to the end of my life, this date will have a very special and somber place in my heart and my soul.

It seemed like just another ordinary day, but, then I received the news: the World Trade Center, the heart of New York City, had suffered a horrible, unthinkable attack. I had to see this for myself. I went up to the first television I could find. Once there, I noticed a small crowd of about 20 people all looking up at the two televisions in that room. There were nurses, doctors, administrators, secretaries, and a couple of patients. All of them had the same expression on their faces: a shaken look of disbelief. I finally looked up at the televisions for myself and saw that the World Trade Center Twin Towers were on fire and had been badly damaged. Each tower had a jumbo jet crash right through it. It was horrid!! It was frightening!! It was sad!! Words just can not describe my initial feelings. I too became a disbeliever. This is a movie, I thought to myself. But the tears in the eyes of some of the people around me let me know that this was real (God bless them all, please). Here we were people from all different walks of life—doctors, nurses, administrators, assistants, patients, Blacks, Whites, young, old, trying to cope with what we saw. It was not easy, because we all had something in common with all of the victims and rescue workers. We were American. Never did I think that while at work, I would feel at one with my nation and my patriotism. But, for those 20 minutes in that room at Yale-New Haven Hospital I can truly say that I felt the proudest I have ever been to be an American.

We will get over this heart-stopping tragedy. We will bring to justice the perpetrators. We will become one nation under God again.

Jermaine Little
Food and Nutrition Services