When talk turns to 9/11 my mind turns to those who watched as others who worked for them lost their lives that day.  The people like the Cantor Fitzgerald CEO who’s kid had their first day of school on 9/11/2001 so he was late for work that day, while so many he employed were sadly not.  Or to TJX  who had 7 employees on planes headed from Boston to LA for business that day.

You see in 2001 my husband owned a retail business – it was headquartered in Boston with stores in 12 states.  And retail is a tough industry.  It’s operates almost 24/7.  And as I insisted on having some semblance of a life without his work engulfing it entirely, he hired people to help him run it.  On that fateful day I was working in Salt Lake City and my husband was there with me, splitting his time between his business in Boston and our temporary home in Utah.  As the drama unfolded I did not know then that 2 of the planes were from Boston or of a routine conversation my husband had had the day before.

American Airlines flight 11 was a great flight.  You could leave Boston at a reasonable hour (not the crack of dawn) and get to LA well before lunch and have a full day of work.  As we had stores in LA my husband and his staff took that flight often.  On 9/11 one of our employees was ticketed for that flight, was supposed to be on that flight.  But thankfully (understatement) was not.

He’s one of those employees that not matter how hard you push him, he’ll push himself even harder.  And so the day before with my husband absent from the office he had been pushing himself hard.  My husband talked with him and could hear stress, or how tired he was or something and told him to go to LA later the next day.  No need to get there first thing.  Don’t worry about it, get some rest he suggested.

It was one of those conversations that you don’t really think about.  The kind that happens thousands of times a year.

So when I think of 9/11, I think of the what ifs.  And I start to feel sick to my stomach.  What if he had gotten on that plane for our company.  I’m very sure my life would be quite different today (giant understatement).  And then my thoughts turn to all of those whose lives were forever changed 9/11/2001.