The 39-year-old was shocked when she discovered she was pregnant again. But the good news was tempered by complications and a warning by her doctor, Indrani Bongu, that the pregnancy might not come to term.

Seven weeks premature, Bailey Angel Pike was born Sept. 11. For her parents, she couldn't have come at a better time.

"It was a blessing from God on an unforgettable day," Mrs. Angel said.

But having the baby in the middle of an international crisis presented special challenges.

"In the delivery room they had the TV on, and when the second tower was hit, I had to ask them to turn the TV off because her head was crowning," Mrs. Angel said. "It was overwhelming."

Parents Robert Pike and Margaret Angel will celebrate their daughter's first birthday Sept. 11. Bailey Angel Pike was being delivered while the television showed the second tower falling. JIM BLALOCK/STAFF

For those celebrating birthdays on Sept. 11 and for the relatives of those born that day, it will always be a day of remembrance, a celebration infused with a certain sadness.

Martinez resident Kris Wright's granddaughter Taylor Randolph, of Modoc, S.C., will turn 13 on Sept. 11.

"I get so emotional about it," said Mrs. Wright, whose husband, David Wright, has been a firefighter for 32 years and is the captain of Engine Company 8 on Central Avenue. "She's only 13, so I don't think it has hit her. I just don't want her to think it was a bad day. So many things changed that day. I can't even look at an American flag without crying."

For her family it will be a day always mixed with extreme joy and extreme sadness.

"It will first always be the day Taylor was born," Mrs. Wright said. "It was a great day in our family, our first grandchild. And a lot of wonderful things have happened since Sept. 11. It's made me appreciate my husband's profession. A lot of people have stopped by the firehouse to tell them thank you. That would never have happened before then."

Sonja Marks' son Demeyias Marks, an E-4 in the Navy, turned 21 on Sept. 11 last year while he was at sea.

Instead of celebration, it was a time of high anxiety for family members, who weren't able to reach him for about a week and had no idea whether he would be deployed to fight in the war.

"We had mixed emotions," Ms. Marks said. "A 21st birthday is supposed to be a significant milestone, then to have such a tragedy occur on that date was just unfortunate. It will always be a memorable event, that's for sure."

He'll celebrate his birthday today on dry ground at the Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, in Virginia Beach, Va., just days before he's deployed to Afghanistan.

"This will be a major birthday for him because of the uncertainty of what awaits him on that other side," Mrs. Marks said.

Dawn Welch, 28, has a Sept. 11 birthday, and she's reminded of the tragedy every time she whips out her driver's license to show a store clerk.

"Anytime anybody sees my birthday, like on my driver's license, they say, 'Oh I'm so sorry,"' Ms. Welch said.

This year, she and her office mates at ReMax of Augusta have planned a bridal shower on Sept. 11 for a co-worker.

"There are a lot of people who died, but there are also a lot of people who were born on that day," Ms. Welch said. "You feel bad about what happened, but you've got to go on. I've got to live with that the rest of my life now."

Also celebrating a birthday last year on Sept. 11 was Ernestine Thompson, professor emeritus at Augusta State University's sociology department. Her birthday, she said, was bizarre.

"... it was one of those years when people decided they would send me flowers for my birthday. Here we are watching the news, and these people are bringing me flowers. It was surreal."

Reach Melissa Hall at (706) 868-1222, Ext. 113, or melhall@augustachronicle.com.