Photos: Resident Shares Experience of NYC, 9/11/11

Morristown resident, and friend of Patch, Berit Ollestad, made the pilgrimage to New York City on Sept. 11, as many others did, for the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. There, she captured the day in photos. Here, she tells her story:

Ten years ago on 9/11, I was literally a world away visiting family in Europe. It would be almost a week before I returned to a country I barely recognized.

Being so far away when the attacks occurred, it felt much like it does when I watch wars being conducted in far away lands such as Syria, Libya and Afghanistan. Except this would prove to be a very different war because it occurred on my home soil.

When I first heard about what had happened, my husband and I were traveling through a remote part of Italy. When we finally arrived at our hotel in a town named Monterosso, there were probably 15 or 20 foreigners, mixed in with a few locals, huddled around a black and white grainy 13-inch television with no sound, mounted on the ceiling with images of a plane and what looked like fire and buildings. But anything more than that was indistinguishable. The spotty radio reception didn't help much to understand what was happening, either. When I tried to call back home, the phone lines were jammed and there was no way I was going to get a call out to get any information. I remember very vividly the next day when I saw the headline in the local newspaper: 60,000-70,000 Presunto Morto!

It still didn't really resonate with people what had happened over in "America." I think there was a sense that we all wanted to believe that clearly someone was mistaken and had their facts mixed up. Unfortunately, as we all eventually were to find out, the only thing that was incorrect was the number of people that had perished in the attacks on New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. When we arrived back into Paris and were preparing to take our flight back home to Seattle, clearly the magnitude of what had happened had started to set in around us. There seemed to be a very real nervous energy that filled the air at the airport. Our flight out of the U.K was one of the first ones to be cleared to fly into U.S airspace after a week of restricting flights in and out of the U.S.

The flight back to the U.S was perhaps the most excruciating nine hours of my life; it felt like 90 hours to me. There was an eerie sense of dread that was palpable throughout the flight. Since information was still coming in in bits and pieces to the U.S., it would've been my guess that Europe was receiving 50 percent of the reports that the U.S. was receiving.

The only voices that could be heard were the occasional P.A. announcements from the pilot requesting us "to fasten our seat belts" because of turbulance. The deafening silence could be heard throughout the cabin for what seemed like an eternity. Then finally we were approaching our final destination. As we were landing, the moment we touched down the entire cabin erupted into applause and people were crying and hugging each other. But I clearly knew that whatever had happened here while I was away was going to change all of our lives forever.

Fast forward 10 years and here I am living just barely 30 miles from Ground Zero. Combined with the fact that we were observing the 10 year anniversary, I knew that it would be an opportunity to be a part of something more powerful than anything I had ever experienced to date. Although I didn't get near the actual memorial because they had it cordoned off for blocks, the activity surrounding the memorial was just as memorable. What struck me as particularly poignant was the unspoken sense of unity that seemed to reverberate throughout the day. I was also overwhelmed with awe at the level of respect that everyone seemed to show one another.

I tried to capture the mood of the day through my photos. I especially looked for individuals interacting with each other and what type of facial expressions they exhibited. I searched for examples of people being creative by expressing their feelings with mementos (the white ribbons), artwork, outfits they may have been wearing. Lastly, I tried to capture the different sentiments that people were expressing, either through slogans on t-shirts or signs they were carrying.

I couldn't help but think how just 10 years earlier Ground Zero would have been the last place on Earth that anyone would have wanted to have been at. And now, 10 years later, individuals are making pilgrimages here to commemorate the day. It gave me a renewed hope as I looked around and saw individuals from all different cultures and backgrounds coming together so peacefully for one reason, to honor and remember all the men and woman that were lost on that dreadful day 10 years ago.