I remember driving on Willow Rd. approaching Sanders while listening to Mancow Muller ranting and raving about some cause, when suddenly, his tone had changed.  There was a shock and alertness in his voice as he announced something sounding like “Oh my God …. an airplane had just struck one of the World Trade Towers in New York……THIS IS NOT A JOKE! …..an airplane had just hit one of the Trade Towers…”

I had never heard Mancow sound like that before. Sitting at the light, frozen and in awe, I awaited the punch line of some cruel joke, as he had many. However, he did not let up and he did not sound like himself so I decided to call Laura, my wife, to check if anything was reported on TV. Unfortunately, there was….

Within a couple of minutes the second plane hit and the tone from “Accident” to “Terror Attack” changed instantly. With a rapidly escalating and horrible reality, and although thousands of miles away, I felt the chilling possibility of an invasion, the need to protect our family, and could only imagine the horrible things that people were facing in New York.

Later that afternoon, horrific image upon image of the tragic events, and the additional planes hitting the Pentagon as well as the avoided White House crash, we knew we needed to sit down with our older girls (7 & 8 at the time) and talk to them about what had happened, and assure them that we will do everything to protect them.

We spent that day, that week, maybe even year….with sorrow for the people who had passed, with the anticipation of what unknown may happen next, but also, in unity of kindness and patriotism with people all around us. I only wish it didn’t take a tragedy, but it seems like it often does.

From all of us at Four Daughters Real Estate, we will not forget.