Il mio 9.11

The celebrations of the twentieth anniversary have brought back emotions and memories. I keep thinking about it why? I wonder if writing this post and sharing it can help.

I worked on WTC freelancing, north tower, I don't remember the plan, but it was high, maybe 101, right up there, beyond the impact of the plane? Bruce worked for The Port Authority, then, no longer...

It is said that everyone remembers what they did that day.

As a New Yorker I was lucky enough not to be there that damn day... luck... summer was ending, and I was on a boat between Ravenna and Rimini. The phone picked up and a phone call came from Patrizia, who said:

"You can't believe, a plane crashed into one of the twin towers."

I answer you;

"But what do you say, it will be a fake of the web ... "

"No, no, look it's true! are passing the images... "

We tune into the radio, and all the stations talk about it.

In the evening we stop in Cesenatico and arrive at a TV.

A friend from downtown told me that he saw people throwing themselves out of windows through a telescope.

I return to NY a few weeks later. The first few days I restrain myself from going... I just seem to be dirtyly morbid. Then I go... I'm glad that then we did not take pictures with phones because those images I just want to carry in my heart as they resurface.

It was afternoon. The WTC subway stop was blocked. I got off first and walked. Everything was cordoned off, you couldn't get so close. We could still see the macabre steel sifts, three, perhaps, that seemed to emerge from the ground.

He was still smoking, yes! He was still smoking! A huge jet of water, perhaps, more than one, came from above, in an arc, on those rubble.

Near the church of Trinity something, attached to the black, wrought-iron fence, were large white sheets hanging. You could write something about it. There were phrases in different languages. They gave me a marker... but I didn't know what to write... What could I possibly write??? I ended up writing in Italian "+ of words, my ❤️"

I wonder where all those sheets will be because, I'm sure, there was a quick change.

I stayed there for a while. There were people, they came and went, they were there like me, to browse ...

At a certain point, I turn and meet the gaze of a man.

Have you ever entered literally, I mean literally, into the gaze of a person? It's really hard to describe if you don't try it. It's so intense, it's scary. It lasts a matter of seconds, but there is a total and deep connection.

You enter inside it, inside an emotion, it happens that, for a moment, you share a piece of soul. For a moment a complete stranger bonds intimately with you. Our eyes merged for a few seconds. We were both crying. I was impressed. He was crying too. And I was surprised that neither of them looked away.

For this, I think, it was even more penetrating. We were crying in silence, when your eyes fill with tears, they are soaked with tears and, then, one ends up coming down to you.

I don't remember anything else about him. I don't remember his face, I don't remember how he was dressed, only that he was middle-aged.

It happened to me only one more time, but not with the same intensity.

He was at Arlington War Cemetery during the Unknown Soldier ceremony.

A strong, creepy emotion. With the only soldier marching, and what I remember being a trumpet? that sounds like the "silence", that fills the air. I turn and, even then, meet the gaze of a man. I am moved. But he cries, he really cries. I only remember him not being younger. Why was she crying like that? Who was there, inside that cemetery? Perhaps, a son?

Here, I am one who is moved easily, it also happens to me at the cinema 😅🤦 ♀️ but on those two occasions, I was not ashamed.

I was born and live in a city whose symbol is 2 towers. 2 wonderful medieval towers. I often stopped to think: "what a strange coincidence" 💫

When I returned to Italy, and I took home, I bought a painting, which I liked very much, and I ended up putting it on top of the bed. It is a kind of skyline, you can see roofs and domes.

Only later, I realized that, between those roofs and domes, there are also 2 towers 🙏 ❤️