Where Were You on 9/11/2001?

Twenty five years ago I’d driven 548 miles from Pittsburgh to Rockford, Illinois on September 10th. My sister flew home to New York City from Chicago that same day. We couldn’t plan an overlap although I’d asked if she could wait and fly back the 11th. So I was asleep in my father’s room at the Wesley Willows Assisted Living as he was in the hospital with surgery from a broken foot. My cousin Christopher called on my dad’s phone. The old desk phone kind. Time is Central, an hour earlier than NY. He informed me that the World Trade Center had been attacked. It was only when I got to the hospital in my father’s room and the televisions were on everywhere. It took time to comprehend the magnitude of destruction and loss of human life.

My sister Mary photographed this 9/11 Cross a Symbol of Hope. It was a blog post in September 2020.

It’s “located near St. Paul’s Chapel of Trinity Church near the 9/11 memorial. This statute represents the wreckage of the twin towers forming a cross from the aftermath of 9/11. The original cross was moved in the 9/11 Museum. This cross was sculpted by Jon Krawczyk. Cardinal Egan picked him to sculpt the new cross.”

There’s a 35 page metal. book at the base with all the victims’ names inscribed

2011 blog post of FDNY Fire Engine in the Fire House across the street

My sister shared this 2024view from her West Village apartment window tonight 9/11. The moon and the memorial tribute beams of light. You’d have to be in NJ to see both streams.
2025 view
A white rose is placed on the name of a victim on their birthday

Hard at Work

Carrying the empty water bottles. Grandson Ananda (3 in November) uses them as a drum until we take them to get credit for new water.

You already know I’m a Knitter. So I Bought a Fun Hat but….

When I ordered this denim hat on my new phone, I used Apple Pay. Unfortunately when I looked at the email with the tracking for delivery of the prompt shipment, I noticed that the shipping address was a place in Rockville Maryland! What? Ooops.

A place I’d never searched, never visited, how could this be?

I still cannot understand how it came into my order. I googled the address and found a children’s haircutting place. What the heck? If it had been a yarn store…..

And I called the place and asked them to look for a package addressed to me and please please please Return to Sender. Fingers crossed.

And although it was my oversight on the incorrect shipping address, the owner and maker Malena at Thanks, I Made It Company shipped me another hat! It arrived today in the loveliest pink box. Incredibly generous of her to send me a new hat. I hope she gets the other hat back. She said maybe someone working at the place is a knitter. She was so gracious about the mix up on my order.

Now you know I’m proud to have been born in Brooklyn, New York , where I “lived” for about a week in a hospital before I moved across the river to New Jersey where I grew up.

By the way, there are blank hats you can get a custom embroidered message stitched and tote bags and tees, too!

With completed knit blanket for Roy. The colors matched

Happy Birthday to my Sister

Our mother holding baby Mary
Mary with nephew Matthew (May 2026)

Dahlias Bouquet

Dahlias.

So many varieties. My neighbor grows them.

A little bouquet my neighbor brought to the front porch for my DiL Nataliya

Silent Sunday

Fire Hydrant Flush on Friday

I got a robocall from the Water Department Thursday night. The neighborhood might be without water between 9-3 on Friday because they were flushing fire hydrants. When the water would come back on it might run brown. Let it run til clear. I filled buckets and gallon containers early this morning to aid flushing toilets at our home. We rushed showers, ran the dishwasher. Did two loads of laundry. Turns out we didn’t need the water buckets at the ready. We had water all day Friday. My DIL said it ran brown about 8:30. All clear soon after. We got a lot accomplished in a short amount of time, preparing for a day without running water. We had a 5 gallon bottle on the counter to drink and cook with.

Mourning Doves Evening Meal

At the neighbor’s feeder. They enjoy the seeds.

Their fluttering and cooing sounds remind me of staying at my grandmother’s when I was young. Mouthing doves have such a distinctive call. “The male’s signature “coo-OO-oo-oo” call sounds sorrowful and melancholic to human ears.”

Ten Things you might not know about mourning doves

September 3, 1912

The day Marian Van Sickle was born in Durand, Illinois.

My eldest son Mark told me on his last visit home that we’re all just a generation or two away from being forgotten. I’ve been thinking about that fact and wanted to remember my Mother on the anniversary of her birth.

John, Robert and Marian
I still have her doll Maybelle

The teacher in a one room school house
August 28, 1939
1942
1974
1984

Our mother had her 88th birthday in a Rockford Illinois hospital and passed away 6 days later on September 9, 2000.

Framed

East Liberty Presbyterian Church

We were returning to the car after a visit to the East Liberty library.

“The architect who designed the current structure was Ralph Adams Cram, of Cram and Ferguson in Boston. Cram also designed Calvary Episcopal Church (1906) in neighboring Shadyside and Princeton University’s Chapel. When Cram was hired by the Mellons to build the current East Liberty Presbyterian Church building, he was given absolute freedom to build the finest and most beautiful church to the glory of God that he could create.”

Past blog posts mentioning East Liberty Presbyterian Church are tagged here