In 1985 when she was born, this was just a day like any other. Every year family and friends gathered together to celebrate her special day, just as they gather all around the world for others born on this date (like my niece Kristi who shares this birthdate). Then, on her 16th birthday, this day changed. It was transformed by horrible events that unfolded on the other side of the continent. In the space of a few hours it became a day to mark, to remember, to never forget. Instead of celebration, it became a day of mourning.

Like billions of people around the world, I will never forget when I heard the first news that a jetliner had crashed into the New York World Trade Centre. I was on an elevator, riding up towards my office when someone asked if I’d heard the news. I hadn’t listened to the radio that morning as I drove my daughters to school on my way to work. We’d laughed and joked and been listening to their ‘tunes’ on the CD player. News of the world was far from my mind.

And then, I stepped off the elevator into my office and saw people huddled around televisions everywhere. It was true. The World Trade Centre had been hit.

I left. Went across the street to where my youngest daughter was in junior high and the entire school was in shock. I took her out for the day. Who knew what might happen after such an event?

My eldest daughter wanted to stay with her Grade 10 class. They were discussing the events and she wanted to be part of the conversation.  I phoned my friend Jane and told her I’d picked up Liseanne. Can you pick up Curtis too? She asked. And I did.

I don’t remember if we discussed Christie’s birthday. The girls and I had already sung her Happy Birthday on the phone. Before we’d heard of the tragedy.

I remember feeling scared. Unsure. And more than anything else, wanting to shield my daughter from the events transpiring in New York and Washington and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a town I’d never heard of. I picked up Curtis and his friend Johnathon and took them back to our home. At first, I turned the TV on but had to turn it off. I couldn’t take my eyes off what was transpiring and I didn’t have answers for these three young teenagers. And not having answers scared me.

It was our choice of movie that made me laugh. I’d suggested to the kids that we go watch something funny. How about Rush Hour 2 the boys suggested? It had just been released.

Not having seen Rush Hour 1, I took their lead. And that’s what made me laugh. Two thirteen year old boys made the decision of what movie we’d watch on a day when the world was in shock. A day when violence was sending shockwaves around the globe and I went and sat in a shoot-em out, blow-em up, explode everything in sight kind of film.

It was the only time I remember laughing that day. Not at the movie so much as at myself. Thank goodness I had girls, I thought. I wouldn’t know how to deal with all this testosterone on a daily basis!

I took the boy’s home after that and my daughters and I huddled together at home, watching and not watching the news. I did my best to reassure them but it wasn’t enough. How do you reassure your children the world is a safe and loving place when hatred explodes from the sky?

And I wondered about the mothers in Iran and Iraq and Afghanistan. I wondered about mothers all around the world who helplessly watch as their children cower in the darkness of moonless nights as guided missiles scorch the earth and incendiary bombs light up the night. I wondered if they too felt as helpless as I. I wondered if they too went to bed and cried, their minds lit up with worry about what will happen to my children. What will happen to our world?

It has been eleven years since that horrible day in September 2001. Christie’s sweet 16 is long forgotten but this year, her mother and father, my dear and much loved friends, Al and Jane, held a Happy Sweet 16 for Christie. We gathered together and toasted this amazing young woman who’s smile lights up the room and whose laughter lifts even the heaviest heart.

Christie is 27 today. 16 + 10 + 1.

It is a special day. A day to celebrate her birth.

A day to remember all that makes this world an amazing and wondrous place.

And, it is a day to never forget, we cannot create peace when we hold hatred and indifference and judgment in our hearts.

Let us not forget and let us always remember — we are the stewards of this earth. We are the makers of war, and peace. Let’s choose peace so that Christie and those like her will know their birthdays are days to celebrate, not forget.

Happy Birthday Christie! What an amazing woman you are!