The eleventh of September is the only date I can think of which marks an event known to everyone, everywhere. In Italy il quattro novembre marks the end of the First World War, in Britain and elsewhere it’s the eleventh of November. Victory in Europe at the end of the Second World War is the eighth of May in the UK; Liberation Day in Italy is
Sep 11, 2022·edited Sep 12, 2022Liked by Agnes Crawford
Something I think about a lot is how individual this collective experience was. We were in Mozambique & had just moved from Washington, D.C. My memory is of desperately trying to get a receptionist to break into a meeting to tell everyone something terrible had happened. She kept hanging up, telling me the meeting was important & could not be interrupted. A few hours later, we all gathered in the lobby of an improbably elegant hotel & hoped against hope that the people we loved in DC & NY were safe.
And I speak of someone totally removed from it all. I didn't directly know anyone involved, but it was massive and horrible in a way that changed all of our lives, and there was definitely a sense even from Trastevere that things would never be quite the same again.
I remember every single conversation, facial expression and detail of that afternoon and nothing at all of the morning.
Me too. But from that moment when that phone rang in the Basilica I remember it all. Even at the time it felt like a turning point.
Something I think about a lot is how individual this collective experience was. We were in Mozambique & had just moved from Washington, D.C. My memory is of desperately trying to get a receptionist to break into a meeting to tell everyone something terrible had happened. She kept hanging up, telling me the meeting was important & could not be interrupted. A few hours later, we all gathered in the lobby of an improbably elegant hotel & hoped against hope that the people we loved in DC & NY were safe.
And I speak of someone totally removed from it all. I didn't directly know anyone involved, but it was massive and horrible in a way that changed all of our lives, and there was definitely a sense even from Trastevere that things would never be quite the same again.