Love in the ruins

NONE of us will ever forget the moment when we saw the Twin Towers burning.

As US news footage beamed around the globe we froze in disbelief, unable to tear our eyes away from TV screens.

I was on holiday in rural Cyprus, trying to make sense of grainy images on a kindly family’s telly. Then, when reality hit and the sickening fear set in, I thought we were on the brink of nuclear war.

And I felt compelled to ring my brother in England, just to tell him I loved him.

This week I felt equally compelled to watch the many documentaries marking yesterday’s 20th anniversary of 9/11.

Hours and hours of the same harrowing footage of shocked New Yorkers, staring skyward, hands clasped to mouths in horror. Of firefighters with fear in their eyes waiting to ascend to their deaths, flinching at every sickening thud as jumpers hit the ground. Of people trying to flee the collapsing towers, the injured ghosts emerging from a post-apocalyptic landscape.

And of survivors recounting extraordinary stories of the heroes who died saving others.

Terror

Replaying the moments when thousands of people were murdered makes me feel sick and voyeuristic. But the horror of 9/11 is still so hard to process that my brain just wants to rewind that bright September morning and freeze the picture.

Before the Twin Towers start to burn. Before reality hits and the sickening fear sets in.

Whether the 9/11 attacks could have been prevented is discussed in Netflix’s excellent series Turning Point. Other films focus on the global fallout – the impact of the War on Terror.

It may not have been the nuclear conflagration I feared, but it certainly changed the world forever – and the shockwaves are still reverberating.

Confusion

Some commentators draw a straight line from 9/11 through Afghanistan and Iraq to the rise of conspiracy theories, disinformation and Donald Trump to the election insurrection at the US Capitol in January. So a nation once united in love and defiance against its attackers is now an angry and divided one intent on attacking itself. But yesterday’s commemorations were not the time to discuss the political aftermath.

They focused instead on the victims, the families, the first responders and survivors – and it was a day filled with love. Another documentary that aired this week featured survivor Lynn Simpson who escaped from the 89th floor of the North Tower.

She recalled colleagues who feared they were going to die calmly calling family members and leaving answerphone messages, just to say they loved them. She said: “Confusion, fear and anxiety – those emotions were running rampant through everybody.

“But so was love.”