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I left Palo Alto for Ireland in 1994. On 11 September 2001 I was living in Donegal, Ireland, and working as the manager of a small health food store.

I had just finished my lunch and was listening to The Archers BBC radio when the telephone rang. It was a co-worker calling to tell me a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Before I knew how to react she screamed and said, "Oh my God, there's another one."

My country was under attack and I was 5,000 miles away. I taped a sign to the front door, closed shop early and walked to my car. Outside, people on the sidewalk went about their business as if nothing had happened. They laughed and smiled. Did they not know the world was changing forever?

For the first time since leaving California six years earlier I ached to go home. Not home to my rented cottage 5 miles away. Back home to Palo Alto.

Mimm Patterson
Emerson Street
Palo Alto

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