Reflections on the 9/11 tragedies are vivid in most of my friends’ and families’ memories. It might be hard to understand if you did not live through it, but it haunts most of us.

My parents compared it to the way they felt when Pearl Harbor was bombed during World War II.

It was shattering.

Twenty-four years later, it’s still vivid. We can’t forget, and we shouldn’t forget.

We need to help our younger generations understand the immense terror felt all across America. The planes stopped flying. The cell phones were flooded, and family members were saying goodbye, trapped in the towers. Hearts were breaking.

It felt as if God was weeping over the crumbling towers as they fell.

It’s part of our history, part of our growth. Many of us had to console our children and grandchildren. We were struggling to help our parents who were reliving the trauma of Pearl Harbor. But the impact of the events of that day helped us understand hatred, loss, defense and love. We reached out to whoever was closest to us to comfort.

The value of our histories, this history, should never be underestimated.

We cannot erase the past; this is what has made us to be who we are today and it’s important that we share our histories, good, bad or indifferent.

We need to share our stories.

This weekend there are many reunions in Webster City. Reunions take many forms: family reunions, friends gathering after long absences, Doodlebug owners and class reunions.

Some dread those reunions, but they shouldn’t. Reunions help deal with a shared past on many levels, and sometimes they help deal with a shared present.

My high school class is celebrating 50 years since we graduated this weekend. Celebrate can be a challenging word. At this reunion we will also be mourning the recent loss of a classmate, the loss of a grandchild, sharing the pain of loss and helping each other cope.

The losses are tendrils that wrap around us as we want to remember their joy, their love, the inspiration that they gave us.

This is when the reunions matter. So many of us have already dealt with the types of losses of the past few weeks. We all deal with our lives differently, and finding those few people who are able to ease the pain is not immediate, obvious or promised.

But having a shared past helps. The foundation of our lives was built together, starting more than 60 years ago in kindergarten. We studied together, we laughed and played together. We saw each other succeed and fail at tasks, we watched each other grow, painfully at times.

We learned about more than how to play together. We learned about our world, our country and our town. It might not have seemed important at the time, but all these steps into adulthood gave us strength.

But when events like 9/11 happen, it all tumbles into a mass. We thought we were at the beginning of a war on our own land.

As we look at images today of the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, I’m reminded that I thought this was going to be us. I’m reminded why our ancestors went to war during World War I and II. I’m reminded of the value of our neighbors and people of all color, all religions, all languages that was so obvious during the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

People mourned with us from all over the world.

We cried together.

We saw the churches filled, as prayer filled our world, not knowing what else could be done as we were suddenly isolated from each other. Not traveling, no way to comfort those from a distance.

Now, each year, when September 11 rolls around, it reunites those of us who lived through it, who remember, who survived.

There is value in reconnecting. There is value in remembering

It’s the weekend after September 11.

Let it be a time for laughter, forgiveness and joy.

And let it be a time to remember.

Kolleen Taylor is lead writer for the Daily Freeman-Journal.