美国国家公共电台 NPR--A remembrance of Sept. 11 from a person working that day at the Pentagon

（单词翻译）

A remembrance of Sept. 11 from a person working that day at the Pentagon

Transcript¹

A mother tells her daughter what it was like being at the Pentagon when a jet tore through the building on Sept. 11, 2001.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

Time now for StoryCorps. Tesia Williams was one of the first people in her family to go to college. Shortly after graduating, she got a job at the Pentagon. She was there on September 11, 2001, when one of four hijacked² planes crashed into the building and killed 184 people. At StoryCorps, she told her 17-year-old daughter, Mikayla Stephens, what it meant to be there.

TESIA WILLIAMS: My parents didn't come from a lot. My grandmother had a high school education, but given the Jim Crow laws, there were only a few jobs that were available to her. And so I had my sights set on, you know, rising in my career. And then September 11 came around. I was 23, and the rug was swept out from under me.

MIKAYLA STEPHENS: What did you witness that day?

WILLIAMS: I remember the plane hit in between corridors 4 and 5, and I was in corridor 6. There was just so much confusion as to what was happening. I thought a bomb had hit the Pentagon. After I left the building, I remember standing³ there, frozen. All I wanted was to call my parents. Others were running back into the building to rescue people. But I didn't think about running back in. And I was ashamed for a long time. I carried this weight of not doing more when I had the opportunity to do so.

STEPHENS: I didn't know that you went through so much.

WILLIAMS: But did you know that the events of that day inspired me to adopt you and your sister?

STEPHENS: No, I didn't. I didn't know.

WILLIAMS: Yeah. So six years after 9/11, I got the devastating⁴ news that your mom passed away after giving birth to your sister. And I thought, now's my time. I have to step in.

STEPHENS: I'm in shock. I never knew that 9/11 could motivate you to do something like that.

WILLIAMS: Yeah. But you were just such a wonderful blessing⁵, and I am so thankful to have you in my life. And, you know, if I had an opportunity to talk to my younger self now, I would tell her that falling - that's inevitable⁶. Focus on what you're going to do to get back up and help others get up as well.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MARTINEZ: That's Tesia Williams and her daughter, Mikayla Stephens. Their StoryCorps interview will be archived at the Library of Congress.