Tears shed during 9-11 ceremony
Their voices breaking, parents and grandparents of those lost on Sept. 11 stood at the World Trade Center site Saturday and marked the third anniversary of the attacks by reciting the names of the 2,749 people who died there.
The list took more than three hours, punctuated by tearful dedications when the readers reached the names of their own lost loved ones.
“We miss you very much, we love you very much, and we’ll never forget you because you’re in our hearts forever,” said Stewart D. Wotton, looking skyward and remembering his son, Rodney James Wotton.
Four moments of silence were observed at 8:46, 9:03, 9:59 and 10:29 a.m. — the precise times that the two planes slammed into the buildings and when they collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001.
Bells tolled at the moment hijacked Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pa. A moment of silence was observed at the Pentagon for the 184 victims there. And President Bush stood in silence on the White House lawn to mark the third anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
For those at ground zero, the pain remained fresh. Pat Hawley, 44, said he comes to the ceremony every year to remember his older sister, Karen Sue Juday.
“It seems like it gets harder every year, because it’s that much more time since I’ve been able to talk to my sister and be with her,” said Hawley, of Charlotte, N.C.
Hundreds of family members descended a long ramp into ground zero, sobbing, embracing each other and tossing a layer of roses onto two square reflecting pools meant to evoke the fallen twin towers.