We will never forget...

As the anniversary of 9/11 approaches every year, I am struck by how it is the one thing in my life I can remember every moment of. I remember exactly what I was doing when the first plane hit and the confusion of what had happened. Then the second plane hit and it was like having the wind knocked out of me. I couldn't believe what was happening, how it could be happening, and of course WHY. As the morning went on and the Pentagon was hit, and then the 4th plane went down in PA, the shock I felt was enormous. It still is. I think to me it was as if, for that day, the whole world stopped and then had to start back over again. Only now every little thing is different. I can't get over the way it still affects me. I watched the news accounts of it this morning on NBC and I immediately am covered in goosebumps and crying all over again. Even as I put our flag up last night, I was immediately pulled back into the memory of that day. So many people lost their lives that day. So many families lost loved ones. So many children lost parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and they'll never understand why. We as adults can't understand it, how can we expect our children to? My oldest son was just 1 1/2 at the time. He was too young to even wonder why mommy was glued to the TV and crying at the big smoking building on the screen. I will never forget. Never. In honor of the heroes that lost their lives that day, many people all over the world are using their blogs to honor the memories of each person individually. To view entire collection click here... http://www.dcroe.com/2996/?page_id=2

I post here in memorial of a man I never knew. Just reading what I could find about him online makes me sure if I could have known him, I would have loved him. All the pictures I can find are of a man who is brimming with life and has a huge, contagious smile. He was a husband and father which breaks my heart. His children lost him. His wife lost him. I can't do justice to his memory, but I hope that he is in heaven smiling down on his family and friends and knowing that I am thinking of him today and that he will forever now be a part of my memory of 9/11. I found this memorial piece on him online and I felt like it really said a lot about the kind of person he was. His friends and family were blessed to have him in their lives, even if it was only for 38 short years.



Donald Robertson Jr., 38, of Rumson, N.J., was the type of guy who would suddenly grab his dad and plant a kiss when it was least expected. He was quick with a joke, always reached first for the restaurant bill and loved spending time with his four children.
Robertson, a vice-president of sales for Cantor Fitzgerald, was on Floor 105 of the North Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Soon after word of the terrorist attack reached his family, a group of Robertson's son's friends got together and went to the city in search of the much-loved man.
"His family and friends were the most important thing to him in the world," his father, Donald Robertson Sr. told the Star-Ledger of Newark. A family friend told the paper that Robertson "was always there to provide moral, financial or whatever support you needed."
Robertson loved playing hockey and rooting for the New York Giants football team. He also served on his church's golf committee.
In addition to his father, Robertson is survived by his wife, Karen; three sons, Michael, Matthew and Kevin; a daughter, Madison; his mother, Marcee, of South Orange; a brother, John of Roseland; two sisters, Kathy Cunningham of Spring Lake and Beth Robertson Wisely of Atlantic Highlands; his grandmother, Margaret Robertson of North Arlington and in-laws Stanley and Patricia Paradowski of Brick.