Kathleen's Blog

When I run, I turn up the music and start pounding the pavement. But this morning, I ran in silence and thought about a morning 15 years ago that started out in exactly the same way with a long run but with an ignorant innocence of the horror the day would bring.

I think every one remembers where they were on September 11, 2001.  I was at a Johnstone store in Florence, South Carolina. The entire store, customers and staff, all ran into the lunchroom and watched in stunned silence as the planes hit the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.

And in Florence, I was far away from my home and family.  Thankfully, I was with Tammi Frank, from a store group in Jacksonville, Florida. Unsure what to do, we loaded up her car and in the dark of the night quietly drove south to her Johnstone family.

And there, as a virtual stranger, I was warmly welcomed into the home of Mary and Walter Ware, Sr. Hearing that I was stranded, they didn’t want me alone in a hotel and insisted that I stay with them. I quickly came to learn such stunning graciousness was typical of the Wares.

And in watching the horrific footage on television over and over and over, the last thing I wanted to do was get on a plane. And even when the skies were again filled with planes, I didn’t want to fly. The idea of flying was too scary. And airports were filled with heavily armed guards with big, imposing weapons. Airports were scary.

Thankfully, the Johnstone Annual meetings were in Florida that year and the decision was made to meet as planned.  And so I again found myself driving south, this time to Orlando with Steve Moeller. And there, in the lobby of a hotel I found Bob, my boss, waiting for me. I was far from home but not alone anymore.

And so I finally walked into an airport in spite of the heavily armed guards, the eerily quiet terminals and I boarded a plane home,  back to California.

And so this morning, I ran in silence and I remembered September 11, 2001.  Because even though I went home after that horrible day there were so many who did not.  And in the years since, in our defense, many more paid the ultimate sacrifice and left home, never to return.

The tears this morning on the running trail were for all those beautiful, wonderful, amazing, loved people who will never get to go home again.

Love, me