Tue, 11 Sep 2001 - Dr. Kathie Rudy

All -

I just got out of patients for the day. My phone was ringing with calls from my kids in CA. They told me what happened. They can not reach their father who works downtown. Now, as I look out my pricey North Shore of Long Island windows with a view across the water to the NYC skyline, it is different - void of the towers that were just there - inexorably changed - forever changed in the concrete and the fantasy.

I am in shock and do not wish to be alone.

My friend/colleague called. We were to have lunch today. A weekly treat where we wind down and speak of patients and people and all sorts of mundane and not so mundane things. A special time we set aside to laugh and to cry and to just be human with each other. She canceled (of course). Her son works on the Commodities exchange and was walking across the street as the first plane hit and he saw it all - with people plunging - and he can not get out of the city as the bridges are all closed as is the LIRR. He would have walked the 17 miles to Great Neck if he could have. Her other son lives 3 blocks from the WTC and the first one went there. They are, at least, together. Grown men crying, their mother stranded helplessly a few miles away. The extent of the havoc that has been wrought in millions (billions) of hearts and minds is incomprehensible.

Kathie

On a more concrete note - always a pragmatist - everybody should go to an ATM and get some cash. We do not know if the computer networks might be closed down for a while for security or whatever purposes. This also might preclude using credit cards and getting cash for a few days.

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