Nine-One-One

Nine-One-One
Many businesses closed early; the big Job Fair at the War Memorial was cancelled; after school events and evening meetings were postponed. Prayer Circles were hastily convened amid the eerie silence that fell across America.
From my porch perch the usual sounds of the late afternoon rush hour on Routes 350 and 441 were missing. There were no sounds on Orchard Street. No planes cut through our appalled shock and disbelief, even the birds seemed to respect the enormity of the silence.
When you say the date 9/11 as: nine-one-one, it has a sharp double edged significance. A true emergency. The wanton murder of so many people and destruction of property by crazed zealots who abused our country’s faith and trust for their own hollow victory by flying hi-jacked airplanes into the Pentagon and World Trade Center was/is over-whelming.
Too over-whelming for me to think of in its entirety: the ripple effects it will have on the thousands of immediate families and for years to come on all of us.

My thoughts turned to the individual victims and their families. I wondered how they took leave from each other that fateful morning. Did any of them say, “I love you and wish you enough”?
It is one family’s traditional parting comment. Whenever members separated, they would say: I love you and wish you enough.
It was understood what “enough” meant, because the saying had been handed down for many generations. The original author is, therefore, lost in the annals of time.
I think it is very poignant and would like to share it with you.
“I wish you a life filled with just enough good things to sustain you. I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright. I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more. I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive. I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger. I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting. I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess. I wish enough
“Hello’s” to get you through the final “Goodbye.”
Well, Gentle Reader, since you just never know what will happen next, here’s a hug from me to you. I love you and wish you enough.
(09/20/2001 Wayne County STAR Newspaper)
Patriotic Cornucopia: A collection of Essays from Cornucopia by Kate Chamberlin Published in the Wayne County STAR Newspaper, 1994-2004
All rights Reserved by Kate Chamberlin 2010.