We attended this emotionally moving event last year at this time. The flag display with featured commemorative events was held in the park of a community that we passed by on a daily basis. As we drove our daily route, we were witness to the coordinated efforts of volunteers as they placed the flags in the field over the course of several days. A quote from the event details for an upcoming 2018 Field of Honor event taking place in Tennessee describes my realization perfectly when this morning my daughter asked and research if the event was taking place near us again this year.
"The panorama of red, white and blue is hard to describe, but once experienced it is not to be forgotten."- from the Colonial Flag Foundation website.
We were all deeply touched by the impact of the field of flags with the attached personal info of each victim of the 9/11 attacks. If there is a Healing Field or Field of Honor Flag Display event happening anywhere near you, I'd recommend a visit. You can find event info here: Schedule of events.
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| Sixteen years old now, our daughter was one month old on 9/11. |
Our youngest was one month old on September 11, 2001. It was a beautiful clear fall day in Chicago-land. My stay at home mothering activities of two young boys and a baby, included preparing breakfast and getting everyone out into the backyard to enjoy the wonderful weather. My first awareness of the attack on the World Trade Center came through a phone call from a friend who knew I wouldn't be tuned into the news. The awareness of the event explained the unusual, and in retrospect, eerie quiet of the beautiful morning. A quick peak at the tv seared an image of the burning twin towers into my mind. Fear churned internally with the added anxiety of being unable to contact my husband at work in downtown Chicago. I avoided sharing the national news with my children. The scary violent images had no place in their young psyches'.
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| Healing Field Flag Display |
We were fortunate not to suffer a loss of a loved one directly, as so many others did that day. 2,976 families were forever altered that morning by losing a loved one, many more in the following days, weeks and years as a result of the attack. Looking back now, I can see that we were all changed that day. We were changed as individuals and we were changed as a country. We all moved on, living our lives, being about our work and raising our families but everything was different.
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| Education |
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| Learning history. |
It has taken me sixteen years and attendance at a local Healing Field to really acknowledge and verbalize to my children the change that occurred that day. A Healing Field Flag Display was hosted by The True Patriots Care Foundation in a nearby suburb. In tribute to those who perished on 9/11, 2,976 American Flags were posted in perfect rows. Each flag bore a ribbon and card with a brief biography of the honored victim. The event included programs and participation from veterans, community and school groups.
I visited the field several times, once with my sixteen year old daughter, once alone and again with my husband and children. The attention to detail and the overall impact of the flags displayed, one for every victim, was overwhelming. Inspired by the display of flags; information, stories and emotions were shared with family and complete strangers. Words alone are inadequate in the processing of the tragedy itself and the resulting pain it caused. The events of 9/11 are still incomprehensible but awareness of it's overall effect on us is essential to the continued healing of our country and to the healing of each of us individually and within our families. We share, we teach. We remember...
