Sunday, 11 September, 2022 – Elias texted briefly to say they are in London now. They stayed in Birmingham yesterday because they could not find anything affordable in London last night. I don’t know for sure, of course, but I think they could be here, in this neighborhood.
Today was the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Elias was only 9 months old on September 11th, 2001, but he’s heard me talk about that day many times. We were watching Elmo’s World on Sesame Street when the news broke in to say a plane had flown into one of the World Trade Towers. The show actually was not interrupted – the news showed on a ribbon across the bottom of the screen. I remember my father said, “Elias’s world will never be the same.”
I expect that the Queen’s death has overshadowed any notice about the 9/11 anniversary, so it is possible that Elias, Ian, and Kelsey don’t even realize what day it is, back home. I found some British news sites had noted the anniversary, though. And I found a site that has a lot content, from last year’s 20th anniversary, exploring the UK’s role in the aftermath of the global reaction to 9/11. It is on the Imperial War Museums website, called 9/11 Twenty Years On.
Elias and Annika’s world is not the same one I knew, or my father knew, but the fact is, they don’t know any other world than the one they grew up with. They hear us mourn what we lost on 9/11 but cannot relate to the sense of safety we are so sad to have lost. Maybe that is okay. They do not gain anything from feeling that loss, do they?