It was just another day.   Believe it or not the weather was beautiful and I was having a pretty good morning.  I finally got to work and started catching up on some things I hadn’t had time to do the night before.  My boss had called me the night before and basically told me, “Is this Evelyn Adams?” “This is she”, I had responded, and then she went on to tell me that I needed to get my work done.  I was thinking about all of it, when all of the sudden there was a loud boom and then the building shook, it threw me out of my chair.  I was on the 88th floor and I felt the ground shake, but I had no idea what was going on.  At first, I thought that maybe there was an earthquake, but then I came back to my senses and realized we don’t get earthquakes in New York.  Next thing I knew everyone was running for the exits and I started seeing large objects falling outside the windows.  The at the same time my friend ran by me.
“Evelyn!” I heard Heather yell at me.
“Heather what’s going on?” I yelled back.
“We’re being attacked!” She yelled.
As I was on my way down the steps I just kept thinking about my husband and my two year old son Carter.  I kept thinking about how I was going to get out of this because there is no way my son was going to grow up without a mother.  As I was running I saw two men kicking at a bathroom door, there was a lady who had gotten stuck inside.  Everyone was running down the stairs and I can honestly say I have never seen Americans act so honorably. Everyone was at their finest.  Everyone was helping anyone who needed it.  They were carrying people down the stairs and they were taking their time to help people escape from where they were trapped.      
Then all of the sudden I heard something.  It wasn’t screaming or the sound of fear.  It was a beautiful and reviving sound.  It was a man singing.  I felt a sudden burst of hope and strength so I kept running. I have that man to thank for my life, because without him I don’t think that I would have made it.  As I was on the 3rd floor I felt the building start to shake and then I fell onto the stairs steps, covered my head and prayed.  All of the sudden there was a huge gust of wind and there was dirt and debris everywhere.  It filled my mouth and it went into my eyes and it surrounded me everywhere.  All of the sudden it all stopped, nothing moved, and what scared me the most, was the silence.  There was no screaming, there was no crying, just silence, like I was the only one there.  I tried to keep myself calm but it was becoming impossible.  I kept  reminding myself of my family and how I was going to get home to make them dinner. That was the only thing keeping me sane.  The debris and parts of the building were all around me, I was trapped and hoping someone would find me.
I don’t know how long I was under there, but I heard someone calling, “This is the Fire Department, if you hear us tap on something or say something.”  So I began banging and screaming with all of my might.  My hand started to feel numb but I didn’t care because I just wanted out of there and to go home to my family.  Finally I knew they heard me, because they started digging.  I felt a huge rush of relief come over me and just started crying and crying. I just couldn’t stop,  Finally, I saw the light and they pulled me out.  Once I got out it was just one giant blur.  I couldn’t see much and my eyes really hurt. They took me over to someone to check me out and the people said that I had a bunch of debris in my eyes.  They were swollen and irritated, so they had to try and rinse them out. For months I was pulling things out of my eyes.  I had to go to numerous doctors appointments after words.  My eyes were red and swollen so whenever I went to blink it would make them sting and start to water.  Once the paramedics treated me, I could somewhat see again. I can honestly tell you that I will never forget what I saw.  There was rubble everywhere. People crying, people digging, body parts,and dead bodies were everywhere.  The North Tower had been hit and there were flames and pieces of glass falling everywhere. 
Then, I heard the most horrific sound, it was like people were dropping large sacks out of the windows.  Except they weren’t sacks, they were people.  They couldn’t stand the heat so they jumped,  It was either jump or be burned alive.  The world looked like something I had never seen before, we had experienced real terror.  If you have ever felt your heart break in two then you know exactly what Iand the whole world felt.  After I finally grasped what had just happened I needed to find a way to call my family and tell them that I was okay.  I found a pay phone nearby and called my husband, he picked up automatically.
“Hello” he said.
“It’s me I’m okay, I’m okay” I said.
“Oh my God.  Thank God” he said.
He started crying and couldn’t stop and neither did I.
“Mommy” I heard my little boy say in the background and my husband replied, “Yes, mommy”.  I had never felt so happy in my entire life, I felt as if God had given me another chance.  I told my husband goodbye and told him I would be home soon.  I just was looking around for ways to get home but there no way I could until things got cleaned up.  Then something even worse happened, the North Tower fell.  I needed to act quickly so I started to run, but the debris and dust came too fast.  I held my breath and prayed.  Then I got an idea.  I started feeling my hands against the car doors and feeling the door handles.  Finally one came open, I got in and waited.  Finally, it ended and I got back out of the car.  People and everything around me were covered and you could barely make out a face.  Neither tower was there.  It was like they just disappeared.  After it all soaked in I started looking around for anyway possible to get home.  I finally found a way back to my family and I was the most beautiful feeling I had ever experienced.  America took a hit that day and I don’t know if we'll ever recover from it, but I do know one thing, we will remember, and we will be okay.  They think they broke us down, but in reality they just made us stronger.