Our ties to 9/11

Our wedding day was September 14th, 2001 — three days after 9/11. We woke up on the morning of our wedding to news that the Prime Minister of Canada had proclaimed September 14, 2001 a National Day of Mourning. Our Master of Ceremonies was in Germany and unable to fly back to Canada for our wedding. My brother and his wife had planned to fly up from Pittsburgh, but had to drive up instead. We had two tickets to fly to Halifax the day after our wedding for our honeymoon in NS and PEI. But I was too scared to fly, especially because of the association between 9/11 and the airport in Halifax.

Flash forward 8 years — September 11, 2009. Hubby and I were flying to Halifax to celebrate our anniversary at the same time the two planes had hit the World Trade Center back in 2001. Things eerily coming full circle, in a way.

We originally planned to go to Peggy's Cove on Sunday on our way from Lunenburg back to Halifax, but we decided to go on our way to Lunenburg instead. About 1.5kms from Peggy's Cove, we saw a sign for the Swissair Flight 111 Memorial. Another eerie coincidence that on the 8th anniversary of 9/11, we were at the scene of another tragic plane crash.

Here are a few pictures I took at the memorial. The first explains the memorial, and the rest are pictures of the memorial and the Atlantic Ocean. It's too bad the sound of crashing waves can't come through the computer screen — they really add to the drama of the memorial site and  remind you of the power of the ocean...

 

After much thought, hubby came to the realization that the three slots in the stone are the number of the flight — 111.

The clouds couldn’t have been more perfect…

I felt so goosebumpy from the seeing the memorial and the coincidences between September 11, 2001 and September 11, 2009. And today, seven years later, we still remember both of these tragedies and the impact they had on the world.