by Ethel Ashe-Frear

Created on: May 14, 2008   Last Updated: May 15, 2011

'Unconventional Nuclear Weapons' - Osama bin Laden

I woke up startled. The date was November 18, 2001, it was still dark outside. My mind was confused. "Did I wake earlier and fall back to sleep? What was that? Was it a dream, a vision! Did I actually hear those words or dream them?" Thinking back to Tuesday, September 11th was just another day for me to hunt through the employment ads in the local Orlando, Florida newspaper, or so I thought. I turned on the TV to get the current news.

"Good grief! A plane just crashed into that building!"

The announcer said it was New York City. Was this a movie on the current news channel? That was strange. I witnessed a large explosion and heard the announcement. I sat stunned not moving from the TV. I immediately called my son at work in Maryland.

"Mom, we just heard and the guys are hooking up a TV right now, got to go!" I phoned my daughter anxious for someone, anyone to tell me this was not happening. "I can't believe it," she said, "we'll talk later."

I called my good friend Ginger, a secretary at the University of Florida. "We just plugged in the TV." She sounded anxious and out of breath. "Get back to you tomorrow." I sat alone in the living room stunned, staring at the television as the announcer said another plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

My nerves were on edge; this painful gnawing in the back of my mind would not leave me alone. I had conversations with God, most of them were one sided with me doing all the talking. This time I wanted Him to tell me what was going to happen next. I needed to know, but not sure why. Most of my answers came when I fasted and prayed. Everyone in the country was on an edge and why not? Since that dreadful day on September 11th our lives would never be "normal" again. We would never take for granted our sense of being safe.

Now we were told, "Be more alert."

I thought to myself. "How does one become more alert?" Is there training manual ‘out there' somewhere that will give us directions? We lived in the safest country on earth, or so we thought. Politicians in the government were now constantly telling us on the TV, "Go about your business." How could it be business as usual any longer? Never knowing when the next strike would come.

This November morning was different for me. Three words stuck in my mind spectrum, nuclear something or other, and bin Laden. Did I hear that second word correctly? Nuclear holocaust! "No, no, that can't be correct." I was working

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