Where were you on September 11th at 8:46 AM?

I settled into my home office recliner this morning to begin my morning routine. I opened the Bible app on my phone, and there right in front of me was the date. September 11th.

Seeing this date sent my mind swirling.

I was sitting in J. Christopher’s restaurant having breakfast with my friend Emma Morris. We were coming to the end of our time together when our young waitress came to our table. She said, "I heard a plane just hit the World Trade Center building in New York City." And then she walked away, clearly upset.

Emma and I looked at each other, hesitated for a few seconds, then went back to our conversation. I don't think either one of us believed her, and if we did, we simply couldn't process what she said. But then we felt a buzz begin in the restaurant. Something was up.

We asked the people dining in the booth behind us what they’d heard. The guy said, "My wife just called me and said a commercial airliner ran right into the World Trade Center." I remember the shock wave that hit me when I accepted this as reality.

Then my questions started.

Did the plane lose engine power?
Was this a commercial airline pilot who committed suicide and took everyone with him?
Did we just get attacked by some crazies?

Emma and I thought it best if we headed back to our offices.

When I got there, no one was in the lobby. I called out, "Is anybody here?"

Someone yelled, "We're here," from the back of the office. I headed that way and found five of our people huddled together in a ten foot by ten foot office watching a little TV. Nobody was saying a word. We all just watched the replay of the second jet hitting the building. The station played it over and over again. In between the replays, we watched in disbelief as both World Trade Center towers were billowing smoke.

Then there was the news of the strike on the Pentagon. Then the emergency grounding of all flights in the United States. And the images of the towers burning. People jumping to their deaths. Emergency vehicles everywhere. People running away from the scene. Just running away. It was chaos in NYC as we stood in that little office in stunned silence.

And then it happened.

One of the towers collapsed on itself. It just disappeared in a cloud of smoke and dust. I'm shaking right now as I write this. I was shaking then as I watched it live. I was thinking, "I was in the World Trade Center just a couple of years ago. There is no way that big building could collapse. No way."

But I was looking at it. Someone in the room was crying. All of us were in shock.

I don't remember anybody saying anything.

And then the second tower collapsed.

"Is this the end of the world? What's happening to us?"

After remembering all this by simply seeing the date in my Bible app, I went to talk to Kathy. She was in our bedroom drinking her first cup of coffee.

I asked, "Do you remember where you were on September 11th when the planes hit the tower?"

She said, "Of course I do. I was walking into church with Dawn for a Bible study. Dawn got a message on her phone. She turned to me and said a plane just hit the World Trade Center. I thought she was crazy. I then started to hear the same news from other women in the church."

Kathy's first thought after hearing the news was her children.

Our oldest daughter, Julia, was in upstate NY at college. Kathy got through to her and found out she was fine. She was the first concern because she was so far away and in New York. Our second child, Lisa, was in Dallas at SMU. Kathy got to talk to her and she was fine, too.

Then Kathy got a call from the Montessori school where our eight year old son, Nick, was attending. They said, "You need to come pick up Nick. He is crying uncontrollably." Kathy picked him up, and she told me it took a long time to settle him down. He thought something had happened to his sister in New York. And he was afraid for all of us.

I asked, "What about David?"

She said, "I don't remember."

After she told me her experience on that morning, I said, "I don't remember any of that."

My focus was on the people in the office. Kathy's focus was the kids.

I remember I did eventually snap out of it and give Kathy a call. Right after we talked, Bob Lasher, the founder of Application Partners in our incubator offices, called everyone to the conference room. He had us all hold hands, and he prayed for the people in the tower, our nation, our families. It was a solemn and comforting moment.

As I write this memory of September 11th, my thoughts are drawn to the 2,977 people who died that day 20 years ago. They got up, commuted to NYC, got their bagel and coffee regular, then entered the World Trade Center, and took the elevator to their floor.

Within an hour some of them were instantly incinerated and others were faced with an impossible decision. Burn to death or jump to their death.

This was 9-11-01.

Where were you on September 11th at 8:46 AM? Ask the people around you this week and see what they say. This is how we remember. We are all Americans. Let's remember together.