Over the weekend we went to Malibu for the afternoon. D had to scout there so we decided to make a family day of it. To our surprise we found a beautiful display of flags on the front lawn of Pepperdine University. There were hundreds of flags, neatly laid out row after row. Most were American flags but scattered throughout were flags of other nations. The display was a memorial for those who died at the three locations affected by what happened on 9/11. It was beautiful and sad.
What impressed me the most was the amount of flags, each representing a person. The amount of people who died! I’ve seen so much film footage from the event. I have a cousin who worked at ground zero and who survived to tell the tale of the day. The story that always brings me to tears is the one his wife tells. She spent hours on the rooftop of her office building in Mid-town Manhattan, looking towards Wall Street, not knowing if her husband was dead or alive because there was no cell service. That story is as personal as the event gets to me. The memorial put the magnitude of the event into perspective.
The memorial was sobering. However to an almost three year old, hundreds of flags and a large green lawn equals joy. P ran like the wind around polls and in between rows. We joined in her fun. She got wrapped up in my sweatshirt and somehow it turned into a ride. A rock became a tripod and we took some amazing family pictures. It’s so rare to get a good shot of the three of us. And the pictures that turned out are exactly what I’ve been wanting for the empty frame in P’s room. With the beautiful light that comes at sunset D took many amazing shots of P and me.
I find it weird to think that this major event in history happened before P came to be. It’s like the shooting of President Kennedy for me. I don’t know why but it makes me wonder where we go after we’re a blip on this timeline. Talk about sobering!
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