Anne Garbe-Cadart’s 9/11 Memory

I’m french and on 9/11 I was travelling in Vietnam. When I saw that horrific attack on TV it was unbelievable, I thought it was a movie, a very bad movie. Then I realised it was real and I was so shocked that I can’t find any right word to describe my feeling. I felt guilty to be so far from our western countries in a former enemy of USA but most of the Vietnamese people around me were shocked too. I had to continue my travel but for the first time I phoned to my family from a stay in a foreign country, I needed to share my pain and sadness. I’ve been loving USA since I was a teenager and even after 10 years I still feel a pain that’s like a scar in my hart. In 2007, I’ve been in New-York and the first place I wanted to go to, was Ground Zero. I needed to be with American people around that place, watching pictures and testimonies in the little church, I cried, I felt very bad but it was necessary for me, I had to go there. Still, each time I see videos about 9/11, I feel a great injury and I can’t help crying. I ‘ll never forget all those victims, what our enemies did to us and how precious are freedom and democracy. I thank so much american soldiers who fight to protect our freedom and our way of life, I also think to their families who know the expensive price of democracy. Next 9/11, I’ll be with you in thought.

Anne Garbe-Cadart