Cape Girardeau's Lee family faces troubles after attacks

It started Tuesday morning, when Christopher Lee went into his boss' office to talk about an architectural project. He glanced out the window. Smoke was billowing out of the World Trade Center about a half-mile away.

A hijacked plane had flown directly into the north tower moments before. That terrorist act would profoundly affect the Lee family.

Christopher, a 1995 Central High graduate, moved to New York just over a year ago to pursue his dream of being a big-city architect. He marveled at the differences between that massive city and his native Cape Girardeau. New York seemed so unsafe, so vulnerable to disaster, with its millions of people and its proud skyscrapers.

And as the news started breaking -- another plane crashed into the south tower, another into the Pentagon, another in Pennsylvania -- he wanted to come home. He wondered what happened to the woman who rented him his first home in Brooklyn. She worked on the World Trade Center's 86th floor.

His mother, Yvonne, was waking in San Diego. It was 5:45 a.m., and she looked forward to returning from a seminar, getting back to her family and finance job at Southeast Missouri State University.

She turned on the television. She saw the devastation. She frantically called her husband.

"Get on the phone and get ahold of Chris!" she said.

They were the first words Steven, recently retired and sleeping late, heard that morning. He called his son's office. Miraculously, the call went right through.

Christopher told his father he was fine. He was stunned, but he kept his cool, snapping pictures of the scene with a digital camera and later getting cash from a neighborhood ATM. Hordes of people rushed by him, away from the devastation, wearing confused and panicked looks.

To be violated like this, he thought, is the worst feeling in the world.

He went back inside.

His sister, Lauren, was a little panicked herself. A Central High senior, she was at school when the story broke.

She couldn't concentrate, worrying about her brother and whether he might have been near the crash site.

And then the news came. Her father had called. Christopher was fine.

Yvonne got the same information and was thankful her son was all right. In fact, it seemed he'd get home virtually without incident as New York slowly started moving again after shutting down against further acts of violence.

But Yvonne wasn't going anywhere.

All flights in the United States were canceled for fear of terrorism. She and her coworkers considered renting a van, but were intimidated by the thought of a 2,000-mile drive. Maybe the planes would get going in a timely manner, she thought.

Rent a van. Wait for the plane. Rent a van. Wait for the plane.

She was still debating it Tuesday afternoon, after the terrorism seemed to have stopped and America started taking the toll of its wounds.

And Steven was still at home, thinking of his wife and son so far away.

hhall@semissourian.com

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