They were two friends whose lives closely mirrored each other until a national tragedy separated them forever.

Peggy Jackson and Edna Stephens grew up in Gainesville and later reunited in Washington, D.C., with both working at the Pentagon, headquarters for the U.S. Department of Defense.

On the weekend before Sept. 11, 2001, the two women took a weekend trip to Gainesville for a family reunion.

“We had discussed on our way down what we wanted to do when we retired,” said Jackson, who was in Gainesville on Aug. 13 visiting family. “Both of us had our mind made up that we were coming back home.

(Stephens) was going to open up a bed-and-breakfast inn.”

Sept. 11 changed all that.

A hijacked commercial airliner carrying 59 people slammed into the Pentagon’s outer ring, killing everyone on board another 125 on the ground, including Stephens.

The terrorist act was part of a well-orchestrated series of suicide attacks by al-Qaida that also destroyed the World Trade Center Towers in New York City and resulted in another plane crashing in a Pennsylvania field.

In all, nearly 3,000 died and more than 6,000 were injured.

At the time, Stephens, 53, worked as a civilian budget analyst for the Army.

Jackson, 66, just missed being at the Pentagon herself that day. She was involved in a three-day training session in downtown Washington.

Otherwise, she would have been close to the crash scene, as she worked about 10 minutes away from Stephens.

“All I had to do was go down the hall and down the steps and I’d be in her space,” said Jackson, who retired as a management analyst in March after 42 years at the Pentagon.

She recalled their times together.

“She was like me. She didn’t have any relatives (in Washington), except for her brother, so we would always send each other Christmas cards and talk on the phone,” Jackson said.

“Edna and I would meet in the corridors and talk about our daily activities and stress.”

Jackson recalled meeting Stephens for the first time when they were children.

She was a Jefferson native whose family moved to Gainesville when she was 5.

“Our fathers were ministers, and the kids just clicked,” she said. “We’ve always been like family.”

The two friends parted in 1966, as Jackson moved to Maryland and later went to college, then on to the Pentagon in 1970.

Life at one of the world’s most recognizable fortresses was exciting but stressful.

Jackson always was haunted by a 1975 explosion at the Pentagon.

“I heard it and (at the time) thought it was a plane that had gotten too close,” she said. “One of my greatest fears was a plane was going to hit that building.”

Jackson also had an eerie premonition concerning Stephens. A couple of months before 9/11, she dreamed that her friend died in a plane crash.

“She didn’t even like to fly, but a plane was involved in her death,” Jackson said.

On the Sunday after the women, along with Stephens’ brother, Marvin, returned from Georgia, Jackson hugged Marvin and told him she would see him later.

“But when I hugged (Edna), I told her goodbye and ... something came into my mind that said ‘Why did you tell her goodbye?’ That was odd,” Jackson said. “But the Lord gave me a chance to say goodbye — that’s the way I look at it.”

She recalled panicking on Sept. 11 after Marvin Stephens told her late that day that he hadn’t heard from his sister.

“I immediately called the rescue squad, the hospitals and all to try to find out if they had her listed (among the victims). She didn’t show up on the register.

“Then, after I found out where the plane had hit, I knew then she didn’t have a chance because it was a direct hit where her office space was.”

Jackson struggled to cope after Stephens’ death.

“It took a lot of prayer,” she said. “That’s what helped me get through that situation.”

For a long time, Jackson said, she could not go to work on Sept. 11. Also, she was unable to visit a 9/11 memorial established at the Pentagon until 2010.

“The pain was too great,” she said.

As for her own personal observance of 9/11, recognized nationally as Patriot Day, Jackson added: “I will thank God for another day, because it could have been another way.”