I was going to work, the morning was warm and I was dressed to go into the office. I was working for Garfield Dunlop Member of Provincial Parliament in the Ministry of Education. I walked along the corridor and everyone had their TV’s on watching the news, as always. I got to my windowless office and turned on the computer. I got a message from Alex saying something along the lines of “did you see what is happening in New York?” Alex and I had been in New York a few weeks earlier so I flipped on the TV and started to watch what was happening. I saw a tall building on fire. I didn’t know which one but just watched a bit. I then heard a plane went into the building. I ran into my bosses office and told him to turn on the TV NOW! It was a sense of shock. A few minutes later another plane went into another building, it was the other World Trade Centre building. We waited, and the one went down and then the other.
Our office was called into an emergency meeting as far as how we would talk and how we would deal with things. All our government offices would be closed. All of our offices would also be closed early but we still worked to make sure everything was OK. A few of my co-workers were panicking a bit as far as fear that it would happen here. I walked to the Labour Ministry, we were to have a meeting there later in the afternoon but we cancelled. I was walking along University Avenue when I called my father. We agreed we were ready for world war 3 or something worse. He had concern. I remember walking around and seeing everyone walking in a bit of a daze. It was as if it happened in Toronto.
I put in a full day trying to figure out how to deal with things in the office and help our co-workers. We put out some messages and such. The Legislature was closed since we really didn’t know what was going on. It was a day I will never forget, as most will not.