In the year 2001, roughly 10,000 or so children were born in America every day..
On this day, 9/11/19, the 10,000 or so in the 9/11 generation have reached maturity..
Over the past several years, as the teenage years faded away from those fateful babies who were brought into this world on September 11, media outlets did special features and went in depth on what it means to be a 9/11 baby.. When they were 5.. 10 .. 15..
This year, they are 18.
They can vote.
They can go to war..
They are off to college in a world and time reborn times again since the times changed on September 11..
The SALT LAKE TRIBUNE ran an amazing article several years ago profiling a few moms who enduring the strains of childbirth while the world in front of them was changing forever This story in particular really hit me:
On that Tuesday morning of 2001, Sarah Wells had been bed-bound at Jordan Valley Medical Center with a high fever for nearly four days, with nothing to watch on television but news.
She woke up early to the image of what she thought was a small commuter plane hitting a World Trade Center high-rise. By now, she was alert but confused about what she was seeing. Then she saw a low-flying jet headed toward the second skyscraper, thinking maybe someone was taking photos.
“When that plane hit, I remember the terror I felt,” Wells says. “People on the news were freaking out. I woke up my mom who was with me.”
Soon, doctors and nurses who came into her room to check her seemed more focused on the TV.
“I’m having a baby, and we’re going to war,” she recalls thinking. “It’s like having a baby on Pearl Harbor Day. I was terrified because I didn’t know what the state of the world would be.”
After the twin towers collapsed, Wells insisted the aides turn off the TVs. A few hours later, she gave birth to her daughter, Chloe Quirante, by cesarean section (one of only two born in that hospital that day). Due to complications, Wells and her baby stayed additional days in the hospital.
“It was weird to be going in with one world,” Wells pondered as she carried her newborn home, “and coming out with an entirely different country.”
Chloe’s first birthday brought back so many images and emotions Wells had tried to move beyond — seeing people jump out of buildings, for example — that the drama of the day really “hit home.”
So she went online and found a small support group: “Mommies of 9-11-01.”
There are other tales of mothers who tried to prevent a child birth from coming on September 11.. people who were using whatever medical means necessary to keep baby from discovering the planet on one of the most trying days in modern history.. just trying to buy a few more hours to get to 9/12…
I went into labor with my daughter on 9/11/01. The hospital staff refused to let me watch TV.
My daughter, Savannah Grace, was born with a congenital heart defect, and was transported to a children’s hospital hours away. Her survival chances were rated at less than 5%, but I knew in my heart that she would make it. I knew the Lord had welcomed home too many people that day, and there just wouldn’t be room for her.
I had lost four children over a ten year period of trying to conceive. I look at my daughter daily and still weep for the families that lost loved ones that day! That day will always bring tremendous feelings of sorrow that I will never be able to express to anyone. My heart aches for the families, but I am able to rejoice in the life of my daughter.
Her middle name is Grace, because she is here by the Grace of God. I thank the Lord everyday that she is here, and pray for all people who were affected by the events of September 11, 2001. My life will never be the same. God bless America.
The more I researched into the premise of the 9/11 babies, the more I found.. online help groups.. A WEB MD site dedicated to stories from parents who had their children on that day..
There are some stunning things to consider when thinking about 9/11.. 10,000 kids lost their parents that morning.. Those kids were already born. But 10,000 more were brought into the world..
The children who were being born that day had no perspective on the kind of a world they were entering.
Those who are turning 18 on 9/11/19 saw war from their birth.. innocence lost before they had it.. Stories of torture and beheadings graced their first few years on this earth. After that a Great Recession ruined many of their livelihoods as jobs became displaced and incomes became erased.. Obama gave hope, but they still couldn’t vote.. And Trump vowed to make their America great again… whatever great again meant to their parents didn’t mean to them.
Their 18 years on Earth have been tumultuous. So often a generation’s lives collectively are.. But this generation, those born on that specific day, will forever hold that unholy albatross around their necks..
My son was born on a cold and snowy day in February 2011.. My wife and I held him close and were immediately emotionally and spiritually moved by the presence of a new soul in our lives. He has grown up knowing certain things about news, listening in or glancing at breaking events.
I could not even conjure the emotional roller coaster a 9/11 parent would feel.. A hospital room’s television showing live footage, over and over again, of planes crashing, buildings coming down, a nation rattled to its core.. and you holding a beautiful infant just hours old as all of this random nonsense and chaos turns into a calamity of geopolitical proportions. The feelings of the parents of the 10,000 must have been overwhelming… Emotional.. perhaps also enraging that such an event could take almost turn their precious moments dark.
For some around the location of the terror attacks, the calendar is not just a reminder, but also medical histories: This is what NEWSWEEK magazine reported two years ago:
The baby teeth of 9/11-era children like Lagodich have become the focus of a pilot study in recent months by scientists at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital. They are examining how pollutants released into the air when the World Trade Center towers collapsed may have long-term health consequences for children who grew up near Ground Zero, many of them now teenagers and young adults. In preliminary results shared exclusively with Newsweek, the doctors said approximately half of the baby teeth tested from four small batches last week showed traces of tin and lead, neurotoxins found in the dust cloud left by the fallen towers.
Also it was discovered that 9/11 dust made newborn babies smaller..
X X X
This is a milestone in time..
The kids who were presented on 9/11 come of age..
Their smiles.. their laughs.. their cries.. their lives. All of that matters. They had 18 years on this planet as we all grew since that day.
The children of 9/11 have enduring unending violence..
There was a book published on AMAZON in 2002 called FACES OF HOPE, BABIES BORN ON 9/11:
Faces of Hope: Babies Born on 9/11
One of the children in the book was Christina Taylor-Green..
On January 8, 2011, Christina-Taylor died in front of a grocery store outside Tucson, she was the only child among the six people killed by a gunman trying to assassinate then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords… Taylor-Green used her appearance in the book as a source of inspiration for her future, a life in politics. Murdered at that young age.
Yes, indeed.. The 9/11 generation has grown up.
And sadly some have been cut down way too early by new realities..
