Sept 11, 2001, was my 2nd day on my new AOL job after the big Netscape closure layoff. I had just returned from a trip to Seattle and Vancouver the day before and was driving out to AOL’s Ashburn campus (past Dulles). The plane that hit the Pentagon probably flew over me and I didn’t even know. I got to AOL as the chaos broke out, then sat in the parking garage for an hour as we evacuated. I found one restaurant open out in Tyson’s Corner and sat there chatting with random strangers for a long time, waiting for the all-clear while they searched for that missing plane. Finally, they reopened streets and bridges that led back into DC and home. I didn’t make it back to my Capitol Hill house until late that day. A U.S. Capitol police officer patrolled my street on foot that eerily quiet night. I remember feeling relief when I heard the loud thumping of helicopters flying low over my house as the president made his way back to the White House.
It was days later that learned that a friend and former Netscape colleague, Catherine Gorayeb, had died in Windows on the World that horrible morning. I’m wishing that Catherine’s daughter, now 15 1/2, remembers how very much her mother loved her. I will never forget how Catherine’s eyes lit up when I said “how’s Kate?” She flipped out a stack of photos to tell stories of their latest adventures… That memory, from the summer of 2001, when Catherine last visited DC and we met for dinner, is how I’ll always remember her. Happy. A loving mother who adored her daughter and enjoyed her job and her life.
