Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Anniversary

















On Sept. 11, 2001 I was at home with a two-month-old baby. Woke up late and was nursing when my sister called to ask me if I’d listened to the radio yet. And she said, turn it on.
One of my first thoughts was to be very afraid for one of my best friends who works in Manhattan (she was OK, and saw the whole thing). Other thoughts were where to run. Visions of going south across the border, hiding within our poorer neighbor who normally we shun.
At that time we had a Turkish family living with us. My friends look Turkish, meaning Mediterranean, and the woman doesn’t wear a headscarf. So no one would know they were Muslim by sight. And it turned out they didn’t suffer any discrimination during their stay in SoCal. But they were just as afraid as we were. Their family in Turkey went crazy with worry.
My beautiful Istanbul, at dawn.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Watching the sun rise in Istanbul is definitely one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

kloeamongtheturks said...

Wish we there now, wouldn't it be fabulous?
K