The news of today’s bombing in Madrid was unpleasant to say the least, but it hit closer to home for me because I lived there for two years. I felt awful when I learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center even though they didn’t affect anyone I knew personally. Now I have an even more sickening feeling because I used the Atocha train station and was in Alcala de Henares, where they found a van full of explosives, many times.

Attacks on innocent people are horrifying enough, but now I am getting a taste of what it was like for people who had lived in the shadows of the World Trade Center. It’s unnerving to think that the people on the train where just going about their regular routines of the day, and may never get to have a normal day again. My heart goes out to them.