Most people think of this day as the day the Twin Towers went down.  There is much more to this day than that one event.

No doubt I still do and remember that day in 2001 very vividly.

I remember my boyfriend at that time, Tim calling me and waking me up at about 9:30ish AM. Telling me to to hurry up and turn on the news.

I lived in Tampa, FL at that time off of Armenia Ave. N. not far from Busch Gardens in a nice sized townhouse.

I immediately turned on ABC News to see them showing a plain hitting the first tower. I was watching while still holding the phone.

I was in a daze, like I don’t get it, is this some trailer for a movie? It sure looked like one, this isn’t really happening is it?

I asked Tim, “What is this, what’s going on?”

That’s when he told me that the U.S. had been attacked by terrorists and I about dropped the phone.

I immediately thought of my friends who had family in NYC, that one of my friends might actually be there, that OMG, if it wasn’t for my ex-boyfriend Steve I would have been right in the middle of all of it as I planned on going to college in NYC and he had convinced me to stay local.

I pretty much sat in shock all day glued to the news, wondering what on earth could I do?

Roll ahead to September 11, 2004 and a majorly significant turn of events happened in my life when I chose to leave the state of FL and head to NC against my gut instinct to turn the car around! (More on that later as some things have to be finalized before I can truly write that chapter.)

Roll ahead a year later to September 11, 2005 we were having a baby shower for our first child, our son Ayden.

I did not like the whole “baby shower” thing so I called the party a “Celebration of Life”. I choose the 11th originally, but ended up starting the party on the 10th as more people in the family were able to make it. However we partied into the 11th!  I wanted it on the 11th because it was a little less than a month from my due date and primarily I wanted to give people a reason to celebrate life on that day.

Sounds like a happy ending right?

Unfortunately it was not, less than a month later on 10/06/05, my son Ayden Francisco Pelaez-Hernandez was born full-term stillborn.

Who knew a little less than a month later we were going to go from celebrating his life into this world to planning a remembrance of his way too short of a life with us.

Despite him never taking his first breath in this world he has dramatically impacted my heart, mind, body, soul and life as well as others.

So today for me is a day of many life altering events, stemming from 9/11/2001 and till today which would have had a much more dramatic meaning if my plans to move out and free myself would have went as intended.

They say, “Everything happens for a reason.”

Sometimes the reasons show up right away, sometimes we have to dig for them, sometimes they come in their own time and other times we are left wondering.

To all of those that have been dramatically impacted by this day and thought of on this day, you are all in my thoughts and prayers.

Especially you, my dear son. We love you and your spirit that remains.

Jamie Pelaez
Skype: jamie.pelaez
Twitter: JamiePelaez