September 9, 2006 - Remembering September 11, 2001

I remember September 11, 2001.

I remember being in a morning meeting and one of the staff members was late.  When he came in, he asked if we had heard the news about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center.  We hadn't.  We finished our meeting, then went upstairs to the lunch room (with it's huge projection television) and saw that the news channels still weren't sure if this was an accident or some sort of attack.

Shortly after that, we watched in horror as another plan crashed into the second tower.  Then it was clear that this was no accident.

A very sad, unsettling day.

The next day, I got a phone call from a friend.  He told me some more sad news.  A former co-worker was on America Airlines flight #11 - the first plane to crash into a tower.

Anna Williams Allison was a collegue at Bachman Information Systems.  She and I both worked in the Quality Assurance department.  She was very smart, very energetic, and a terrific QAer.  I learned a lot from her.

When we both left Bachman, we remained friends, and occasionally spoke, emailed, shared ideas about QA and work, and had lunch.  She eventually formed her own company - doing QA training and presentations.  She was very good for the QA field.

She was on flight 11, on her way to a customer engagement.

I miss her, both professionally, and as a friend.  Each September 11th, as the country shares remembrances of a sad day in our history, I think of her again.  We in the QA community are poorer without her.