Healing the wounds of 9/11 with exhibit at NLR library
As a tour leader at the 9/11 Tribute Center in New York, Maureen Mitchell helps to ensure that people will, as the slogan goes, “never forget” the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Mitchell lost her husband, New York fire department Lt. Paul Mitchell, after jet planes flew into the World Trade Center that day.
Mitchell was the featured speaker at the Sept. 6 opening reception for the exhibit, “Recovery: The World Trade Center Recovery Operation” at the William F. Laman Library in North Little Rock. Guests partook of libations and hors d’oeuvres and listened to the sounds of Arkansas Brass.
The reception included a program in the Exhibit Hall, where the former schoolteacher recounted the events of the day, along with her story. Paul Mitchell was headed home from a 24-hour shift when he heard the news of the attacks. He stopped at a fire station, grabbed some gear and headed to Ground Zero on his own. Fellow firefighters last saw him entering the South Tower.
“I kept thinking he was going to be found,” said Mitchell, who was eventually forced to face reality. A memorial service was held for her husband on Nov. 2, 2001. She ended her story with moist eyes and a simple, “Enough said,” but went on to extol the Tribute Center.
“It’s a wonderful place of healing, and we’re all able to tell our stories.”
U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) presented Mitchell with an Arkansas Traveler award.
“Recovery,” consisting of 65 photographs and 56 recovered artifacts from the Twin Towers, will be at the library through Dec. 1.