Flashbacks of 9/11
May 12, 2011 by Victoria Noe, in 9/11
, Friend Grief
, Grief
, grieving styles
, Osama bin Laden
, September 11
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| Photo courtesy Taunton Gazette |
The news earlier this month about the death of Osama bin Laden wasn’t entirely good news.
I found that every person I talked to about this – without exception – shared some memory of that day almost 10 years ago.
Sometimes it was as innocuous as “so-and-so was supposed to be there for a meeting, remember?”
Sometimes it was “we really didn’t understand what was going on” (from my daughter, who was 7 at the time).
But sometimes the feelings were raw, as raw as they were that day. The comments were passionate and full of a pain that has not eased, even after all this time.
Rather than bring “closure” (that word again), the death of bin Laden stirred up a lot of anger and grief.
Personally, I didn’t feel angry; I got past that a long time ago. But I did find myself experiencing the uncertainty, the fear that I would never again feel truly safe.
You didn’t have to lose someone that day to have those kinds of reactions.
But as we move closer to the 10th anniversary and the opening of the memorials, be mindful that these old feelings may pop up again. Grief has a way of biting you in the butt when you least expect it, and this is no exception.
