I have much appreciated the off-topic posts from Lactnetters regarding the
tragedy in Manhattan and Washington DC as well as emails from Rachel Myr
regarding the safety of those of us in Manhattan. All my family and friends
are safe and so far, all of the clients I have recently seen are safe as
well.

Up until a year ago I worked in an office (as Senior Advisor for
international nutrition programs) that was right across the street from the
trade towers. I received a phone call from one of the field offices in Mali
from someone who had just called the office and spoken to one of my
colleagues only moments before the first plane crash.  Fortunately email
worked while phone service was only intermittant and we were able to track
down all the employees from my former office and find out they had all
escaped and get back to the international field offices via email.  My
former colleagues saw horrible things that they cannot even begin to
process at this point.  The office was completely destroyed and given the
images I've seen on the news, it doesn't look that it is stable.  Only a
very small two-story Greek Orthodox church stood between the towers and the
office and I had not been able to see it in any of the media images.
Another colleague who left the organization when I did, called last night
and we talked of many things, but and he confirmed that the church was
destroyed which disturbed us both for reasons we could not understand.

On Wednesday, my thoughts extended beyond immediate family and friends.  A
lactnet post about women feeling like their milk was drying up during
similar events in Isreal triggered thoughts of the women I had seen on
Saturday that were in the "control" zone below 14th street.  I was able to
leave a message with one, wishing the safety of her family and friends and
got through to the other.  The second was very grateful that I called
because she was starting to experience nipple pain (which she read in all
the books as normal) so we talked over what she could do.  It was such a
relief to do something useful. All her family and friends were also safe
and sound.  They had not ventured outside and all the emergency workers in
the area where wearing masks.

Yesterday my son started nursery school. A New York Policewoman guarded the
Synagogue where the nursery school is located.  After his class was over
and he was complaining he wanted to stay, she received news of a bomb
threat at a high school in the neighborhood. At first I thought, where can
I got that would be safe and then I thought no where is safe, so just go
where my son wants to go and let him enjoy the day wherever he wanted.  The
playgrounds are packed with parents that normally would be at work.
Everyone is very subdued.

My brother is a fireman and does EMT work in California and had to deal
with the Oakland earthquake, so I know from his descriptions of the
emotional trauma of that event, with so few that they were able to rescue.
My sister-in-law is grateful that he is fighting a fire in Northern
California and was not sent into New York on the army planes that were
leaving from Sacramento. I cannot image how this will affect the emergency
workers here who have suffered such large losses of their own crew.  Our
local firehouse lost one of their members and school children set up a
memorial. Guiliani's address about the loss of fireman had both my sister
and I sobbing.

I did course work on lactation at St Vincents, and go there for the
prenatal breastfeeding classes. So, I think of all the nurses I know who
work there and how this must be affecting them.

I know this is mostly off-topic, but right now "talking" is my means of
being able to cope. I'm hoping that there will be some clients to see on
Saturday with problems I might be able to comprehend and even fix.  I don't
know if my supervisors have yet ventured into Manhattan.

Susan Burger

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