On 9/11, her dad came home from the World Trade Center covered in dust

His face, his skin, everything was covered in ash and he had tear marks down his face. My name is Samantha and I am from West Windsor, New Jersey. I was in high school when this happened and my mom and my aunt picked me up from school. School had let out as a half day and they picked me up at the bus stop and brought me home. My grandparents were already sitting in the living room and I sat on the floor and we watched the news because it was on every channel. And my aunt, who was my dad's sister, had called and asked if we had heard from my dad because no one could get a hold of him. And I answered and I said that my mom was the last one to talk to him that morning, which was as the second plane hit the second tower. And we had not heard from him since but we were waiting to hear from him. And we spent the rest of the day with the news on in silence. I stayed up as late as I could but eventually fell asleep because I couldn't stay up waiting for my dad to get home any longer. And then eventually he walked through the door still in his suit and it was covered in ash and his face, his skin, everything was covered in ash and he had tear marks down his face. That was the only thing that broke up the ashes on his face. And then either a week or two weeks later we went back to his office and we were standing in one of the conference rooms. We had to go and pick up some of the stuff that he had to leave behind in his office and we were standing in a conference room overlooking ground zero. And there were still papers that were falling in the sky and the city was still really quiet and it was absolutely surreal because I had spent my entire childhood going to work with my dad in the south tower and that building was my playground when I was little and now it was gone. So for my dad, Anthony, I will never forget as long as I am alive and I will never let anyone in my world forget because he came very close to not coming home but he did.