Re: “Where were you when the world stopped on 9/11?,” Surprise Independent, Sept. 8, 2021: I was in Concord, California, 25 miles east of San Francisco.

My sister woke me up and we were watching the news. We saw the second plane hit the tower and started crying.

My partner was in a high rise in the city and they started a mass exodus out of San Francisco. She got home safe.

My one-and-only child was in fire camp in Camarillo, California, in Southern California and I couldn’t get through to her. The hair was raised on my neck when we learned the planes were headed for L.A. and San Francisco. She called me in the afternoon. I talked to her and made sure she was OK, inside and out.

As a teenager, she got through it. My grandkids with COVID. My grandson has gone introvert.

I pray he makes it through this and America comes together again without a tragedy.