Suzanne Olden said she remembers her son, Eric, bounding off the school bus on Sept. 11, 2001, saying, “Mommy! Guess what? School closed early today because it’s my birthday!”
She didn’t have the heart to tell him otherwise.
“I didn’t correct that little innocent boy. How could I? I told him, ‘You bet, buddy,’” and we went in the house,” she said.
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It was a strange day in her household to celebrate her son’s seventh birthday on the day the nation was mourning. She had found out about the 9/11 attacks while she was at work at an athletic club and parents began coming to pick up their children with worried looks on their faces.
“I was dumbfounded and confused and fearful,” said Olden, who lived with her family in Eldersburg, Maryland. “I prayed the whole way home.”
Her husband and his family were anxious to get in touch with his older brother in New York, who wasn’t reachable. A niece was helping out with the horrific injuries in the city. The whole family was wrestling with a spectrum of emotions.
For the rest of Eric’s birthday and the next few months, she shielded her kids from the TV images as much as she could.
“Thankfully, their school bus drivers and schools kept the exposure to a minimum that day and afterward. They let us, as parents, handle explanations,” she said.
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Eventually Eric realized the real reason his school had closed early that day.
“The next year on his eighth birthday, he told us that he knows that now everyone will be sad on his birthday, but he will be happy because God would want him to remember the people who died but also remember that life goes on,” Olden said. “Yes, an 8 year old figured that out all on his own. Out of the mouths of babes.”
She said 9/11 was “a terrible day and a terrible time, but I also saw people stop fighting each other about stupid things and be unified as Americans. I saw people return to church and their faith. That made it better.”
But she said she wishes just one thing — “I wish it had lasted.”
