Esther M. Ziock Carroll - "It was a beautiful September day. I slept late as usual awaking at about 10:30 a.m.  One of my first thoughts was that my father had died 25 years ago today.  I didn't know that soon this date would be etched in my memory for another  reason.  I got up & let my cats out of their room & gave them their breakfast treats then headed for my computer.  The first thing I did was check my email which included a letter from our local radio station telling of the events: American Under Attack*World Trade Centers collapse after planes hit, 10,000 emergency workers head to scene *Plane hits Pentagon, part of the Pentagon collapses *American, United both confirm losing two planes each *Bush calls trade center crashes terrorist act *Federal buildings, United Nations evacuated *FAA grounds all U.S. flights, sends trans-Atlantic flights to Canada *Israel evacuates embassies *Non-essential NATO employees asked to leave Brussels HQ * Federal and State buildings closed throughout Missouri.     Not being fully awake I thought, "What the heck is this?"  It sounded like some kind of science fiction movie.  I went back & read the letter a second time.  Then I mumbled to myself, "This has got to be some kind of joke."  But at the same time I knew the radio station would not joke about something like that.  So next I went to our local Washington County discussion forum & there were several posts about it.  I still had difficulty believing it so I decided that if it were real there should be something about it on television.  I went to the living room & turned the tv on and there it  was on every channel.  I sat, no it was more like fell / collapsed  into an armchair & watched in shock. After a few minutes I got up & ran to wake up my husband, Gene Carroll, a  retired St. Louis County firefighter.   We spent the next several hours glued to the television.  Oh my God - how horrible. . . . . . .all those poor people . . . . . . . . . .