It is hard to believe that the tragedy of Sept 11^th was 25 years ago. If I close my eyes it seems like yesterday. Even more amazing is that I work today with people who were not even born yet or were toddlers when it happened. Maybe my story can help you understand why we must never forget this day of infamy nor ignore those who still want to end our way of life.

Key Takeaways

• Almost 3,000 Americans lost their lives on 9/11 – but almost three times as many have died from 9/11-related injuries or diseases – most of them first responders at Ground Zero
• While people had cell phones the video, texting, streaming, social media aspect of our phones today were not in existence then making communication challenging
• The National September 11 Memorial and Museum estimates 100 million Americans have been born since the Sept 11^th attacks. Along with toddlers at the time, this means more than 1/3 of our fellow countrymen never experienced the horror, hope, resiliency and resolve so many older Americans have felt since that day.
• The message from God remains that good will triumph over evil but it is up to us to never forget and to fight on

Like so many people my age you remember exactly where you were and who you were with as we watched with horror the destruction of the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan with so much loss of life, the attack on the Pentagon and the heroic struggle of passengers aboard United flight 93 that ended in a field in Shanksville, PA.

I was in Chicago with our Canon advance team preparing for our annual sales conference. There was a merry band of us who came in early for these events and it always meant hard work but also great times – dining at top restaurants and having some fun around the cities we were in.

But September 11, 2001 was different. I walked across the street from our hotel to get my usual morning Starbucks and the North Tower of the World Trade Center had already been hit by Islamic terrorists flying a plane into the building. The TV was on at Starbucks as everyone stared in silent disbelief at what had happened. At that time the news was still reporting it as a possible aviation accident. I hugged the baristas and few customers. This is what the terrorists created – horror yes but also hugging and bonding with Americans we did not even know.

I ran back to the hotel and called a colleague – they had all gathered in our VP of Sales suite to watch the unfolding disaster. Little did we know how this would affect us. One of my co-workers had a fiancé working in the South Tower and as we watched the news report that Tower had also been hit by a plane I could feel her shock turn into pain. We tried to assure her they would be evacuated and he would be okay. One thing we all know for certain – America was under attack.

As I write this, I can still feel the gut-punch and warm tears filling my eyes as minutes later we watched the South Tower fall and collapse into dust. The guttural animal cries of my colleague who watched her future dreams instantly evaporate, I will never forget.

After that my only thought was to get home as fast as I could. Cellular towers and landlines were overwhelmed and after 30 minutes I was finally able to reach my sister-in-law to tell my family I was going to drive home. Even though the FAA had grounded all flights indefinitely I knew I would walk home to Southern California if I had to. Some of our colleagues wanted to wait thinking planes would be flying again the next day. I was not waiting to find out. A co-worker was of the same mind and we rented a car, bought a lot of bottled water, diet Coke and Fritos and headed home along Route 66. It took us two and a half days of constant driving but we beat our colleagues home who waited for the airports to resume flights.

Later I learned of two more people I knew who died in the Towers that day – a tech journalist I worked closely with and another former colleague who after 7 years of trying to get pregnant, was finally blessed only to learn her husband who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald would never live to see his child. My story and theirs are not unique as so many suffered unbelievable, painful loss that day.

“The guttural animal cries of my colleague who watched her future dreams instantly evaporate, I will never forget.”

–Sherri Snelling memories of 9/11

One of my endearing memories is visiting Ground Zero a year later and seeing the steel cross amidst the rubble and debris. To me this symbolized God’s message of good and evil. Evil attacked us and our way of life on 9/11 but it did not destroy us, it did not divide us. It made us stronger and more resilient and gave us the resolve we needed. It is also the belief from the Bible of how good triumphs over evil.

As I began to write for news outlets, mostly on family caregiving, aging and longevity, every year I also wrote an article on the 9/11 aftermath because the deaths have not stopped. And with these chronically ill survivors we have also created many more family caregivers. There is much attention on the various cancers and respiratory illnesses of those on “the pile” at Ground Zero –the firefighters, law enforcement, journalists, health care professionals — but more recently studies are showing increasing evidence of dementia in these brave adults. Here are the facts:

• 2,977 people murdered on Sept 11, 2001 from Islamic terrorist attacks
• 9,400 people who have since died from 9/11-related injuries or diseases – many of them first responders

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I will continue to write and post about 9/11 – what we learned, what we still mourn and how America gained resilience and resolve in those days immediately after we were attacked and our people were murdered. This is my way of saying, “We Will Never Forget.”

©2026 Sherri Snelling