Earlier today, my friend Matt Knell told his story of witnessing the attacks on the World Trade Center, and what life in New York was like immediately following.

David, aka Limeduck, simply recalled how blue the sky was.

I remember that sky. I remember walking out of the house with my then-wife, thinking how beautiful it was out. The perfect mix of late summer and early fall, with clear skies and a jeans-and-a-tee-shirt temperature.

We were headed to our insurance agent to try and resolve a dispute we were having with our car insurance provider. We walked, since it was only ten minutes away. On the way, her friend called: A plane crashed into the World Trade Center. That’s all she told us. Stupid Cesna pilot, I thought, they must have gone off course and couldn’t correct in time. Afterwards, I learned that’s what the news anchors first reported.

We walkied into the building where our insurance agent was, and stopped at the little coffee counter that was in the entry way. There was a small TV in the corner showing images of a burning Tower 1. Huge plumes of smoke came out of the top half of the building. Then, just a few moments later, from a shaky camera in a helicopter somewhere over New York, came images of the second plane crashing into the second tower.

It was surreal, like it HAD to be a movie. This wouldn’t, couldn’t happen. Not here. Not to us.

But it did.

I didn’t know anyone at the time that was on the planes or in the towers. Over the last seven years I’ve met people whose relatives were. A friend’s cousin was lost in one of the towers; I met the niece of John Ogonowski, the pilot of American Airlines flight 11. Hurt and anger is what I sense when they’ve talked about that day.

I think that’s what the nation has felt since then. No matter what your political leaning or attitude about what has happened since then, you have to acknowledge the loss. 2,974 people lost their life.

But that loss unites us. Like no other event since JFK’s assassination, this is one of those I-know-exactly-where-I-was moments.

In that unity comes strength.

Photo credit: USA Today