10 yrs later. Sept 11th 2001.

If there is ever a day, an event, that will forever be in our memories, it is September 11th 2001, when 2,996 innocent people lost their life.

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It is easy to miss the enormity of that number. 2,996 people. 2,996 friends and family members. Mothers, Fathers, Husbands, Wives, Grandchildren, Best Friends. For those who lost someone they love, 9/11 is just another day without the person they love. Yes, it's an anniversary of sorts but 10 days or 10 years doesn't diminish the pain of their loss. And it's important to remember that each number represents a person.
When I first signed up for Project 2,996, I got to know a woman named Dianne Synder - albeit posthumously. Each year since then, I always think of her. Her smiling face enters my mind, I think of her children and husband and she's never just a number. For nineteen years she had worked for American Airlines and was on board AA Flight 11 when it stuck the North Tower. 

Along with her husband John, she raised their two children Leland and Blakesee in Westport, MA where they had built a colonial-style farmhouse. 
In these ten years I cannot help but think about all the things Dianne missed out on. Taking her daughter shopping for prom dresses, seeing her children graduate and attend college, eventually watching her children get married. I cannot imagine the personal journey that grief took her children on, their quiet resilience is testimony to their upbringing.  They however, are not her only legacy, in their home town a scholarship is offered in her name to students studying teaching. Before postponing her career to raise her family, Dianne had qualified as a special education teacher and had planned to renew her credentials once her children were grown. Before the events of September 11th 2001, I imagine Dianne would have spent her days tending to her garden, her latest hobby. Or perhaps making a quilt, not unlike the many she'd made before for friends and family. And perhaps she'd had plans to play tennis at the weekend at the Dartmouth indoor club where she was a member. 
To know her or about her life, I am certain there is something everyone can relate to. I'm not a fantastic tennis player and I could never imagine having enough patience to teach children but I am a wife. The story of how John Synder drove 14 hours on a rainy night in 1983 to ask Dianne to marry him reminds me of my own relationship. It reminds me of the crazy things you do...like get in a car and drive cross country or on a transatlantic flight...that make so much sense when you're in love. 

"These acts shattered steel but they cannot dent the steel of America's resolve"
I cannot quite explain the emotions I feel behind September 11th. I remember when I first heard about the attacks, sitting in my politics class and watching the news with our teacher. I don't think at that time I could fully acknowledge the devastation, today I think of the lives lost and the family members they left behind. When you look at each individual person who died and the loved ones they left behind, it is overwhelming. 
"Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings but they cannot touch the foundation of America"
I am not an American but I feel so proud of America, of the American people and their determination not to let this ruin their nation. I shall continue to remember not just Dianne but the other 2995 people who's stories I have yet to learn.