Thread by @gradydoctor

1/
I was on the elevator at Grady. A disheveled gentleman stepped on with wild eyes and matted hair. His hands were waving frantically.

Him: "A big ass 747 plane crashed into the side of a building in New-York-City!"
Me: *chuckling* "Uh, okay."
Him: "I ain't lying!"

2/
I'd heard it all on the Grady elevators. But something about his breathlessness and gesticulating hands should have made me slow down.

Before I could respond, the doors pinged open on my floor.

I walked to the clinic shaking my head. Then I saw the crowd.

3/
A crowd of patients, staff, and healthcare team members were all staring up at the 20 inch television mounted in the waiting room. Against a perfectly blue sky, there stood the twin towers--one of which had a plume of thick black smoke pouring from it.

And then--this.

4/
"Daaaamn!"

An nurse clutched her bosom with one hand and threw the other over her mouth. I still remember the disbelief, the fear, the pitch in how she said it.

A second airbus plowed into the side of the other tower. Live on television as we all watched.

Damn.

5/
As the day unfolded, we'd learn more. Another crashed into the Pentagon. Another in a field in Pennsylvania.

So many lives lost. So many lives changed.

Nothing would be the same. No terror too far fetched anymore in our lifetimes.

Damn.

6/
I still remember that man who told me first. Who told me this thing that I thought not plausible. But that was true.

He looked afraid. Like he'd seen a ghost even.

Along with reflecting on the lives lost and impacted by those brutal attacks, I extract every lesson I can.

7/
I'd blown him off. Now I fight from allowing bias to impede me from listening to what any person is saying.

Especially when it sounds like something critical.

Today, I honor every person who lost a loved one or their innocence on September 11, 2001.

Including him.