9/11 memorials bring healing to many on anniversary
Commemorating the most-lethal terrorist attack in U.S. history can be done inwardly, in silent prayer or reflection. Or it can be done socially, at a church service or public ceremony.
But it also can take place in a setting more directly connected to the attack — amid the wreckage from the day that four commercial aircraft were commandeered by al-qaida militants and flown into buildings in New York City and just outside Washington, D.C. and crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Greater Columbus is home to several 9/11 memorials that honor the dead and those who responded to the tragedy.
There is a First Responders Park located in Hilliard, and another in Westerville. Each displays mangled steel that once girded the World Trade Center towers, emblems of American economic strength.
The two parks honor the flag and those who rushed into the buildings, knowing the dangers that would eventually claim 2,996 lives.
Westerville will hold an observance at its park, 374 W. Main St., at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. In Hilliard, the park at 5323 Center St. will have a ceremony at 1 p.m. Friday that including awards to Ohioans and speeches from officials.
A smaller memorial stands outside Washington Township Fire Station 93 at 5825 Brand Rd. It includes a smaller piece of I-beam from one of the towers. A firefighter and Dublin police officer spearheaded the project.
At Motts Military Museum in Groveport, there are three vehicles damaged in the 9/11 rescues, including Ladder 18, one of the New York City Fire Department trucks that responded from Manhattan’s Lower East Side only to have the second tower rain down on it after it was struck.
For those familiar with the relics, now 20 years old, the wreckage imparts an important message about enemies of democracy and freedom and a nation’s resolve to persevere.
“They tried to take us take us down and destroy us, but we’re still here,” said Lori Motts, assistant director of the Groveport museum.
The museum at 5075 S Hamilton Rd. will be open to the public Saturday beginning at 8:45 a.m. with speeches and special events.
How to process 9/11 amid all the other challenges of an increasingly complicated world is difficult, said the Rev. Vicki Zust, who will have special services Saturday at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2151 Dorset Rd. in Upper Arlington.
“For a lot of people, being able to touch or see something that was there is another way to connect,” Zust said. “The pieces of steel have been really meaningful and have lots of impact.”
Hilliard’s First Responders Park is a frequent stop for Mike Register while taking rides on his recumbent bike.
“It’s a very quiet calming place,” said Register, 61, a retired bus driver and business owner. “To stop there and rest ... and think about all the death and destruction that happened and all the lives that were lost.
“It calms my mind to be with these guys,” he said of first responders, past and present. “It’s as close as I can get to think about these guys who sacrificed their lives to help other people.”
Register had been in the hospital for six months with a serious blood clot until Sept. 11, 2001, the day he was released. Lying on his back recovering is how he remembers the attack unfold on television. It’s also his father’s birthday.
“It’s always been hard to say ‘Happy birthday,’ on this day,” Register said.
Among those who who acted heroically on 9/11 was Jack Boyle, now 62 and a retired New York City Fire Department EMS captain who spent 55 days helping crews dig through rubble.
Boyle jumped into a hole to help rescue the last survivor whose legs had been crushed. Doing so broke a bone in his foot, which he shrugged off as a sprain. It eventually became infected and septic, requiring his leg below the knee to be amputated, he said.
Boyle will visit the Motts museum for services there and at other locations in Greater Columbus, which has become one of the country’s premier 9/11 memorial destinations outside of New York City, he and others have said.
The Motts Military Museum is trying to raise $7 million for a dedicated 9/11 wing, Lori Motts said. The building would hold the fire truck, two Port Authority of New York and New Jersey vehicles, part of a stairway from the North Tower and a 15-foot-long piece of that tower’s antenna, seen in video sinking into the structure as it began to collapse.
“We’re pretty much shovel-ready. We just need money,” she said. “Already, $250,000 has been raised and paid out for design work.”
For Boyle, who lives in New Windsor, New York, seeing, touching and smelling the old ladder truck triggers a flood of memories: magnesium torches used to cut the steel, asbestos-filled air and the stench of jet fuel.
The memorials can be part of the healing process, depending on how they’re displayed, he said.
“It’s just a place you want to sit down and want to meditate ... done very tastefully,” he said.
One of his lasting memories was the day after the attack. Working the pile, crews watched an empty 30-story building across from the rubble pile go up in flames.
“No one gave a (expletive) about it,” he said. “We were so focused on saving lives.”
“That memory, I’ll take to the grave.” dnarciso@dispatch.com @Deannarciso