As we walked along the memorial, we helped articulate the meaning and significance of this memorial to our young children Paige and Taylor in a manner we thought 3 year olds might understand. As we pointed out the many illuminated benches, dedicated to the 184 victims, and as we showed the twins where the names were engraved at the ends of each bench to commemorate their lives, we explained in very simple terms what this special place represented. Mike and I said things like, "this is a place to remember a lot of people who got hurt" and "the people who got hurt now have a very special bench with their very own name on it so that all their friends and family that visit can always remember them".
I can't remember which of the twins asked us these questions as I now write about our visit to the memorial, but I do clearly recall one of the girls asking us, "why are these people sad" and "why did somebody get hurt"? This was one of the more difficult responses to come up with, but I think Mike and I, in the end, came up with a pretty good response. We simply said, "the people who got hurt were on a really sad plane and it was a sad plane that also hurt the building right over there" and we pointed towards the Pentagon building.
Now, here's where this exchange got interesting - no sooner had Mike and I offered those explanations to the twins did a plane fly overhead of us. It was at that moment that both girls looked up at the plane in the sky and said, "look, it's a happy plane". And, they were right. That plane was flying high and safe, just as it should have been that fateful day nearly 8 years ago and Paige and Taylor were right - this plane was a "happy plane". Mike and I talked later on about how insightful that was for the twins to make that observation and even that distinction between a "happy" plane and a "sad" plane. That was a pretty special moment for Mike and me as we witnessed our little ones putting together all those concepts...
We also discreetly pointed out the various visitors walking along the rows of the memorial and said to Paige and Taylor, "we need to be extra quiet in this special place because some of the people you see walking here might be sad for their friends and family who got hurt". Mike and I felt that was a really important message for Paige and Taylor to grasp so that they could observe others and even at 3 years old show respect simply by being quiet. Mike and I were very pleased to see that Paige and Taylor appeared to really understand that simple message because while we were at the memorial and as we were walking around the benches, they were far quieter than usual. And, trust me, 3 year old twins being quiet in any setting can be pretty challenging so we were VERY, VERY thankful that both girls were not only well behaved, but also quiet and respectful at the memorial. It was as if the girls truly did understand that this was a special place, a place where being silly and noisy just isn't appropriate - that was pretty awesome for us parents to see that our young 3 year olds could show that kind of respect for others.
A few photos from our visit to the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial featured below:
The marble stone, shown above, features the names of the 184 victims of the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon and American Airlines Flight 77
The 184 benches, as shown above, were designed by the memorial architects to symbolize the wings of the airplane rising out of the grounds of the memorial. There is a bench specifically dedicated to each of the 184 victims. Situated underneath each bench is a pool of water which at night is illuminated...it's absolutely beautiful!
