Virginia KrutaVerified account

For a moment, I wanted them to stop. I wanted them to stop moving and reflect with me. Then it dawned on me: I don't really want them to stop. Good men gave their blood, sweat, tears, limbs and even their lives so that my memory of 9/11 to never has to be theirs. #NeverForget

Today, as I reflected on 20 years since #September11th, I thought about what we lost. I thought about what we learned. I thought about who we are. While I was thinking, my kids were doing. Cleaning, playing outside, enjoying time with friends. 1/

I spoke to my dad later that day, and he thought what I did: that deployments were imminent. But it was only to be for one of us. Unbeknownst to any of us at the time, I was pregnant — so when my unit deployed to Kuwait for support operations, I was left behind. 9/

Meanwhile, the two rolls of film we processed that day came from a man who just returned from vacation — in New York. As we listened in real time to New Yorkers panicking and running for their lives, I developed photos of a pristine NYC skyline, Twin Towers standing tall. 8/

We listened as reporters detailed the moments after the towers collapsed, as they speculated about who might be responsible, and as they began to try to extricate survivors and bodies from the rubble. 7/

At that store, on a normal day, we processed 150 rolls of 35mm film. That day we did two. Against store rules, we turned on a little handheld radio and listened to live news updates — but instead of scolding us, the managers kept coming by to hear what was happening. 6/

A few hours later, I went to work. I was numb, but I worked in 1-hr photo processing at a Walmart and the store remained open. Almost no one came in that day — and those who did seemed apologetic, like they felt trike they were doing something wrong. 5/

We watched in real tim as the second plane hit the towers and we knew that it was not an accident. “We’re going to have to go,” I said, because at the time, my father and I were both in the U.S. Army Reserve. 4/

I called my mom. She was already watching from her home near St. Louis. I asked whether Dad (at work 11 miles away) knew, and she said he did — and then she gasped. We all did. 3/