Top Of The Table

K-Lee

Sept. 30, 2001

It's another day of National Public Radio in my ear on the way to work. Today's topic is Windows on the World, the restaurant on top of the building that now lay in shambles of concrete and limbs of the asphalt jungle, New York.

As I listen to survivors' accounts of those co-workers lost, I am carried into their world. Mackenzie, Michelle, Jose', Andy, Hoots, or Lorena; It could have been us, clutching to one another in fear as our restaurant came down around us. I think about those who were not on shift yet at Windows on the World and how they shoved back tears while disbelieving what they were seeing on television. Can you even imagine watching your workplace blow up? I am welling up right now just writing this segment. I think about my bosses that I bitch about, the customer who leaves a stingy tip, the annoying senior citizen who comes in and talks and talks and talks… We run out of supplies, menu items, and patience. So-and-so is lazy and never helps out. Business was slow or we were slammed out of our minds. Bitch, bitch, bitch, right?

Everyone is correct when they say "The world will never be the same." I am already grateful for what I have, rethinking what is important to me, and happy to see the very people I complain about

The day "it" happened, I was afraid to be alone. My family is scattered about and the people I care about the very most were far away, at work or not to be reached. While we convinced ourselves to do our chores for closing up the restaurant, I knew I needed human companionship. I had to feel that I was not overreacting when I dumbly watched TV and tears plopped on my lap. I needed another human to empathize with my need to grab my dog and hug him so tight, to wander around my home which I think is filthy right now, and realize that filth doesn't even matter, and to lovingly look at a picture of my boyfriend and I in Mexico during happier times.

"If you guys want to come to my house, I'll make breakfast and tea?" I asked more than said, all the while trying to sound cheerful and make it an appealing event rather than to let them know I couldn't be alone. Luckily, Kali fell for my ploy, although, I think she shared the same need as I. Her beau was trapped at work and to tell the truth, I don't know where her family is. I will be sure to find out now, though, as I count my family blessings.

You see, families come in many forms. We have an immediate family, comprised of our parents, step-parents, siblings, children, and grandparents. We have a work family, a play or social family, and so on.

On my ride to work, listening to the tales of the fallen restaurant and the loss of those workers, the destruction of that "family", I counted my family blessings- all of them.