BAY STATE REMEMBERS SEPT. 11
Family of Bay Staters lost recall hope, sorrow of attacks
September 11, 2021 was as warm, cloudless and crisp as September 11, 2001 — and attendees at the Massachusetts 9/11 Fund’s 20-year commemoration of the terrorist attacks that morning couldn’t help but note the similarities.
“For a family that lost someone on 9/11, a blue-sky fall day brings them right back to that moment, reliving the devastating loss of their loved one,” said Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, at the event honoring the almost 3,000 people who perished that fall morning, and focusing on the over 200 victims with ties to Massachusetts, many of whom flew out of Logan Airport that morning.
The families of those victims gathered at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Saturday morning to remember their loved ones, joined by Gov. Charlie Baker, Lt. Gov. Polito, Attorney General Maura Healey and Boston Acting Mayor Kim Janey. That group read the names of victims with Bay State ties, joined by family members of those who died in the attacks on 9/11.
Joyce Ng, who read some names, noted that 20 years ago she was staying at the Marriott Hotel inside the World Trade Center, just four floors below Todd R. Hill, who perished that day.
The ceremony continued with remarks from Baker and former acting Gov. Jane Swift, who assumed office only five months prior to 9/11. Although she spoke about the dark times the country endured in the wake of 9/11 and now, amid a global pandemic, she noted that “acts of grace and humanity” performed by the 9/11 families have endured long after the horrific attacks.
“This, I believe, is especially true for those families who have connections to Massachusetts,” Swift said, noting that those families’ contributions have included “a remarkable 54 awards and scholarships … along with 16 memorial events, 19 funds, 14 foundations.” That’s in addition to several music compositions, playgrounds, buildings, and recreational centers, “all created for a new generation to find hope and inspiration,” she said.
Anna Sweeney, 25, whose mother, flight attendant Madeline “Amy” Sweeney, died on 9/11 after relaying information about the hijacking from American Airlines Flight 11 to the ground services crew, presented a bravery award established in honor of her mother’s courage that day. Polito noted that Anna Sweeney earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in counterterrorism.
Annette Szivos, of Gardner, earned the Sweeney Award for Civilian Bravery for saving a man from drowning in June. Although the petite Szivos said she was scared to drown herself while holding the 6’ 2” man’s head afloat, “I just couldn’t let someone drown in front of me,” she said.
Szivos said she has since had dinner with the man and his “grateful” wife, who has thanked Szivos for giving her more time with her husband.
“She will always be in touch with me,” Szivos said.
Throughout the day, 9/11 family members noted the little memories they had of their loved ones: the widow whose kids would play “push daddy off the couch” every Saturday morning with their father, the daughter who found ungifted blue dresses for her newborn baby girl in her late mother’s car because she had been “very adamant that I didn’t want Amelia to wear pink,” and another daughter whose late mother sent her family
signs she was there via yellow and black butterflies.
Sonia Puopolo recalled how, nearly a year after 9/11, her mother Sonia Mercedes Morales Puopolo’s wedding ring was recovered in the rubble, still on her finger after her flight crashed into the World Trade Center. When her family recovered the ring, she said she knew then that her mother was OK. “With love and perseverance, and gratitude,” she said, “these are the things that can help us move forward.”
Diane Hunt, whose 32year-old son, William Christopher Hunt, died on 9/11, said “it doesn’t get any easier” to live without her son, even 20 years later. Although she seemed near tears throughout her interviews with reporters, she recalled how last year, her son’s memorial scholarship fund gave $1,500 each to the final graduating class of Sacred Heart School in Kingston, where William Hunt attended.
She also noted that her son sends her messages through pennies, ever since she found one on her floor in the middle of a sleepless night just days after he died. “I always say they’re pennies from heaven,” she said.
As she pulled a shiny penny from her purse, enclosed in a Ziploc bag, she said she planned to head to the memorial at Boston Public Garden Saturday afternoon, to bring her son a penny in return.