09/11/2026
Where were you on 9/11?
I had just woken up. We were still living back home in Southeast Kentucky then, in Whitesburg on Long Branch. Roger was at work in the mines.
I turned the TV on and saw it on the news. I sat there on the couch wondering what was going on, and then the second plane hit the other tower. That’s when one of the news reporters said, “It looks like we’re under some sort of attack.”
I began to pray and cry out to the Lord. There was no way to reach Roger miles underground and Daddy was at work too. I felt scared. The news was indicating we could start being attacked all over the country.
Mommy was always home so I called her and told her what was going on, she started praying over the phone crying out to the Lord.
So I got ready and went up in the holler to Mommy and Daddy’s house.
Tan Yard Holler had always been my safe place. When the world felt scary and uncertain, that’s where I wanted to be—back in the holler, close to Mommy and Daddy, where I had always felt safe.
We wouldn’t leave Southeast Kentucky until 2007, so at that time, the mountains and that little holler were still home.
I’ll never forget that day.
Where were you on September 11, 2001?
