Manhattan Beach 9/11 Memorial

During the weeks before 9/11, my then fiance, Adam, flew to Boston to shoot a show with Blink-182. As he boarded his flight to return home to Los Angeles, he noticed the actor James Woods sitting on the plane. Five hours later, Adam arrived in L.A. safe and sound. At some point after the horror 9/11 occured, we saw a story about James Woods on the news. He claimed that during a flight from Boston to LA, he saw several men acting suspiciously and he reported them to the authorities. Woods feared that they were going to hijack the plane that day. Instead of hijacking their flight, the would-be terrorists used that flight as a test run for the events of 9/11. I remember feeling as if someone had punched me in the stomach when I heard that story. The terrorists used my guy’s flight as a test run. It still makes me sick to think about it.

The 10th anniversary for 9/11 was bittersweet for me. I couldn’t stop watching the coverage of the memorials and ceremonies across the country; but I tried to focus on the positive. When the attacks happened, we had no children and weren’t yet married. Today, we’ve been married almost ten years and are blessed with two amazing children and a happy and healthy life together. Everything beyond that is really icing, isn’t it? I’ve got the full cake. I think we owe it to the victims and heroes of 9/11 to enjoy our cake, to celebrate the life that we do have.

Our little town of Manhattan Beach has a beautiful 9/11 Memorial in front of the fire station. The memorial was created using two steel beams from the World Trade Center, flanked by a concrete beam that says “We shall never forget.”