'BECOME 1 NATION AGAIN'
NY remembers those lost on 9/11
Sunshine beamed down on lower Manhattan as relatives of 9/11 victims gathered at Ground Zero on Monday morning to mark the 16th anniversary of the devastating terror attacks.
Some wedged flowers into the engraved names along the reflecting pools’ parapets and took a moment to pause and pray, while others dangled photos of their lost loved ones from their necks.
“It feels like yesterday,” said James Taormina, from East Rutherford, NJ. “I woke up that morning to a phone call from my mother telling me the plane had hit the building and my brother was inside.”
Taormina came to Ground Zero for the first time ever to remember his sibling, Dennis, a 36-year-old vice president of finance at Marsh & McLennan who died in the North Tower.
“I held hope for weeks, until I saw a magazine that showed where the plane hit and I figured he was killed on impact,” he said.
As is customary each year, the names of the 2,983 people killed on 9/11 and during the 1993 World Trade Center bombing were read aloud.
Bells tolled as six moments of silence were observed — at the times that each of the planes crashed and each tower fell.
The annual recitation of names was dotted with touching personal memories.
Magaly Lemagne broke down as she remembered her brother David Prudencio Lemagne, a Port Authority police officer, as “the embodiment of selflessness and bravery.”
“I hope today, as we commemorate the 16th anniversary of 9/11, everyone will stop for a moment and remember all the people who gave their lives that day,” she said. “Maybe then we can put away our disagreements and become one country again.”
Young children and grandchildren of 9/11 victims also attended the ceremony — although many never had the chance to meet their slain relative.
Alison Murray was just 5 months old when her father, John J. Murray, a Cantor Fitzgerald trader, was killed in the North Tower one week before his 33rd birthday.
“As you get older, it becomes a different kind of mourning,” said the now-16year-old.
In a ceremony on Staten Island, Mayor de Blasio told relatives of the 274 borough residents killed in the 2001 and 1993 attacks, “Despite all you’ve been through, you kept your families strong.”
President Trump and First Lady Melania held a moment of silence at the White House, bowing their heads and putting their hands over their hearts as taps was played.