Cathy Guy’s 9/11 Experience
On
September 11, 2001 Mrs. Cathy Guy was 45 years old and giving the ISTEP test to
a group of 6th graders at West Middle School in Martinsville, Indiana.
“The
assistant principal came around to each classroom to let the teachers know what
was going on. We didn’t want the students to know right away,” Guy said. “I was
able to walk across the hallway a while later and watched the TV in the nurse’s
office. I saw the plane hit the second tower. I
was shocked that we could be attacked on our soil. Stuff like that always
happens somewhere else. It was the first time that I remember having a lockdown
at school. I just kept seeing the images on the TV and I wondered what is next?
I didn’t cry. I just kept trying to
process what happened. I called all my close family like my parents, brother in
Arizona and sister.”
For
Guy this national tragedy hit close to home.
“I
have a lot of family in New Jersey. Many people in New Jersey travel to New
York City to work. I have a cousin who used to work at the Towers but he had
already retired,” Guy said. “I know a family from Martinsville that were
staying in New York City at the time. They could see the towers from their
hotel room. They drove out of the city that day to come home as fast as they
could.”
September
11 still affects many people today.
“I didn’t realize at the time how much it was going to affect
me and my family. My son was a freshman at Martinsville High School during
9/11. I had no idea at that time that my son would decide to go off to
far-away places because of what happened that day. He is currently an Army Sergeant with the 101st
Airborne,” Guy said. “He just got back from his 3rd deployment. His
first deployment was in Iraq. He has had two deployments in Afghanistan.”
