IT IS every mother's worst nightmare. Linda Dickinson's two teenage children were stranded in the stricken city

She, husband Gowen, and five other children endured fraught hours until at last an email from 19-year-old Andrew came to say that they were fine.

Andrew, and his 17-year-old sister, Sarah, had visited the World Trade Centre hours before disaster struck.

They had enjoyed a night cruise in what was their second visit to the two towers in just two days.

The two are now stuck in America waiting for transatlantic flights to resume. Andrew is due to start university on Saturday, while Sarah is due back at Malton School.

"It is every mother's worst nightmare," Linda, from Fryton, near Hovingham, told the Evening Press.

"I heard it on the radio and couldn't believe what I was hearing. We were hoping they were still in bed, 9am in the morning should have been too early for them.

"But it was their last day and we feared for a while they may have got up early to get some last-minute sightseeing in."

A postcard from the youngsters sits on the coffee table, poignantly bearing an image of the World Trade Centre.

They had first visited the building on the Sunday, read an e-mail, and went back on the Monday night for an evening cruise.

Photos taken on that trip will be among the last evening shots of the building, destroyed early in the morning by hijacked planes.

"We are OK!" reads the e-mail that arrived at 7.04pm, five hours after the initial attack.

"Last night we did a cruise past the world trade centre at night and it was beautiful, but now it's gone, also two days ago we were at the base of it."

Trouble seems to follow Andrew on his travels. A major earthquake hit India while he was there and he missed the massacre of the royal family in Nepal by a week.

Mother Linda is overjoyed they are now safe and is looking forward to seeing them again.

"It will be great to have them home," she said.

"But, of course, we feel for those who did lose loved ones."

Updated: 11:41 Thursday, September 13, 2001