When was the day that you would say "time stood still" for you?

Oh jeez – I guess the day I got married and the day my oldest son was born. I wouldn’t say that time stood still on 9/11; it more like bent, curved and fragmented (cf. Dali’s The Persistence of Memory). Kennedy’s assassination was another day on which time stopped. And the day my brother died.

I think when I found out I had Inflammatory Breast Cancer. I had already been through the ringer with cancer, so this was just a damn moment. I’ve said the moment when I first found out I had cancer, it was like all the air was sucked out of the room. This time, it was far worse than that feeling.

The clock started ticking the next day, right when I got a call from the surgeon’s office.

….my good friend from high school had both her parents die in front of her…I guess It was so close to home that it made me reassess where I am in life and what my priorities are. I guess it made time stand still…I realized that the people I love could be taken from me at any instant…and then the clock started again. I try and call my family at least once a week and tell them I love them now.

The moment of my Mom’s death.

I had this crazy moment where I went to an awards ceromony for work. I was fairly new and we were all seated at long tables. Dressed in medieval wear. (Don’t ask). My name was called, and everyone started going mad, clapping, stamping, it was bizarre, I thought it was a joke. So I didnt stand up. All their faces were turned to me and looked odd, like everything was in slow motion. Because I didnt stand up I got shoved, off the bench. I nearly fell flat on my face.

See I was new in finance and didnt know my ass from my elbow. So it was a surprise to me I had won this award for bringing in the most investments in the country.

Now that was a real time stands still moment, I am still surprised to this day to be honest.

Watching my grandmother die and the day I told my father to F*ck off and never come near me again are two days I thought would never end.

I’ve had many and various instances where time seemed slowed – often drastically – but never, that I can recall, stopped. Interestingly, I can’t seem to pin down when, in any of those instances, it picked up the pace again… it just sort of seems to, after the event, when I’m not paying attention.

The day I found out my best friend killed himself.

When digging on Barbuda, time seems to stand still for me. Or at least to move in a much less jarring fashion than it does here in the city.

Probably when my father died of cancer on August 8th, 2000. The clock starting ticking again not long after but the mourning went on for several months. I still miss him very much and think about him almost every day.

When I found out I had a pop quiz at school.

I’ve had a few of those; hope everyone has.

JFK’s assassination and 911. Also Palm Sunday ‘65 when tornados tore up the county and my Grandfather couldn’t be found for 24 hrs.

When my boyfriend died. For a long time after I felt as though I’d been frozen in time. It was a source of amazement to me that the whole world didn’t stop. The sun rose & set, people went on about their lives entirely unaware that the world had shattered.

I came home from school for lunch on a sunny fall day when I was 13. My Dad had died about 15 minutes before that. He was sitting on the couch just leaning a bit sideways. Mom was sobbing.