As the ten year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approached, media lead us down the path to remember the worst attack on the United States of America. Countless interviews, images, television shows and writings surfaced again to give us multiple accounts of the most tragic day in US history. That day now holds power over us all whether you are a US or Canadian citizen; September has never been the same.

Every generation has their child of war and every time 9/11 comes around she said it reminds her of those days. As we watched an anniversary special you would think that she would understand the need to have the observances depicted on every network station but she does not. Instead she is both confused and angered. Why do they keep bringing this up, it was awful... Yes, but it was only one day. We had to deal with attacks on us every day. We were always running to bomb shelters and once the shelling was finished we would emerge to see whose homes were still there. Sometimes entire blocks were gone! My mum would send me off to school, like all the other mothers and I never gave it thought how hard that must have been for her; not knowing whether she would see her children again. I spent more time in a bomb shelter than in the classroom.

She recounted the many times when she would hear the men in her neighbourhood go up and down the bombed streets and shout “Are you OK?” Those men were heroes each and every time, helping wherever they could. She remembers how she and her friend would climb up trees to retrieve whatever personal affects had blown into the branches, giving it to the adults to sort through to determine who it belonged to and whether it could be returned. As she peered back at the television set more questions emerged. Why do they want to keep reliving this? Like this? How is this helping them? Doesn’t this show the idiots that did this that they have won if they keep reliving this same day?

She flashed back again to her time with war. There was this young German guy who crashed landed and the men on our street got a hold of him to hand him over to authorities; he was visibly scared. I often wonder what happened to him. She then recalled the German pilot who attempted to kill her and her girlfriend as they were playing in a field. Now, he was awful! He knew he was going to die why would he choose to pick on us two little girls? As we ran he continued to shoot until he crashed. She despised him. As she got older she saw many things that war brings:  food rationing, more loss of families, friends and freedom. People separated from each other for safety and men returning from war. “The ones that got shell shock or the burnt airmen...oh that was sad. Look how they had to live; it’s awful.” I felt so sorry for them.

It occurred to me as I listened to her story that it wasn’t that she couldn’t see some similarities between 9/11 and World War II or have empathy; she understood the pain so well. However, she couldn’t see the value in us gathering around our television sets to view the events of that day one more time. It seemed in some ways like participating in a never ending funeral.

I can’t blame her for wondering how one day filled with so much loss could measure up to her years of watching her streets become ruin, the people she loved be hurt, killed or dispersed and her childhood disappear. I guess, for all of those that have in the past and continue to suffer as a result of attacks on their homeland it is safe to say, publicly recognized or not, remembrance is something we all do in our own way.