Nine years, seven months and twenty days later. We finally heard from the President the world’s most wanted terrorist has been killed.

It’s about 10:15 Sunday night.  I was about to go to bed; I had just finished my blog post for Monday morning, about using old film for a photo project.  As was my habit, I checked my twitter account to see what was going on.  There were reports on twitter that President Barack Obama was going to talk to the nation.

This is unprecedented.  It’s 10:15 on a Sunday night.  The night before, there were video clips at the White House press dinner where Obama was joking around about everything from his birth certificate to his poll ratings, to the results of Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice TV show.  24 hours ago, he was in jovial spirits.  Now he wants to address the nation, on a Sunday night?

I thought maybe it had something to do with the war in Libya.  Maybe there were results regarding Moammar Gadhafi.  I flipped the TV channels, and settled on MSNBC’s coverage.

At about 10:40 p.m., MSNBC reporter David Gregory mentioned that the subject of Obama’s press conference – was about Osama Bin Laden.  The world’s most wanted terrorist.  The architect of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the terrorist attack on the U.S.S. Cole, the embassy bombings in Kenya and in Tanzania, and even the World Trade Center bomb plot in 1993.  And now there would be a press conference about this madman.

Ten minutes later, MSNBC reported that Obama would tell the world that Osama Bin Laden is dead.  He was killed by U.S. personnel, and that the United Stats has the body of Bin Laden.  Ten years after Bin Laden effectuated the worst attack by a foreign entity on American soil, the United States has finally caught him.

It’s 10:55 p.m. I’m typing this blog post right now, listening to the reports on MSNBC at the same time.  I don’t want to go to bed.  I remember ten years ago, when our family was preparing for a funeral, that we heard that the World Trade Center had been attacked.  Three thousand people died that day.  Ordinary people who worked in two New York City office buildings.  Ordinary people who worked in a 5-sided military building in Washington, D.C.  And ordinary people who were trapped in four jetliners, taken on suicide missions against their will and against their choice. I wrote about my feelings in a September 11, 2009 blog post.  And last year, I wrote a blog post about what we were doing and what we were experiencing on the day before that horrifying moment.

I need to hear this.  The news reports are leaking this information. like whispers and murmurs.  Psst.  I can’t hear this from leaks.  I need to hear this from our President’s mouth.  This is a defining moment.  It’s 11:00 p.m.  I’m hearing David Gregory and Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd updating us on the situation.   I think about all the young men and women who, after 9/11, volunteered and signed up for military service.  One of those young soldiers was my daughter Cassaundra, who currently serves with the Army National Guard in Washington State.  My daughter has served her country with honor and duty.  I could ask for nothing more from her.

How our lives have changed since 9/11.  How all of our lives have changed.  I called Cassaundra.  She was listening to the news on her car radio.  We talked about what tomorrow would be like.  I watched the MSNBC feed.  Old video footage of Bin Laden shooting an AK-47 rifle.  Old video footage of Bin Laden admitting his mastery of 9/11 at a confidant’s house.  Old video footage of Bin Laden with a microphone.  Over and over again, like digital taunts from a brutal and sadistic demagogue who haunted the administration of four different Presidents.

I won’t believe it until President Obama says it is so.

It’s 11:20 p.m.  I’m flipping the dials.  All the major networks are setting up coverage.  I’m still waiting for the news.   Ed DerGurahian, who plays on the trivia team A Few Cards Short of a Deck, messaged me on Facebook. “He’s dead!”  Other Facebook friends are commenting on Bin Laden’s death.

And at 11:35 Eastern Standard time, President Obama announced that, yes indeed, Bin Laden was captured and killed.  It is official.

I don’t know what to feel.  Joy? Sorrow? Revenge? What do you feel?  How do you feel?  What can you feel?

All I know is that Monday morning, the sun will rise as it has for the past nine years, seven months and twenty days since the day when our skies turned black with smoke.

And I’ll wear my United Airlines flight pin – the same pin I’ve worn every year on the anniversary of the tragedy – in the memory and honor of those innocent men, women and children who were murdered by his followers, murdered under his command.

But it will be a Monday morning different than any other day in the past.

Just as the day changed nine years, seven months and twenty days ago.