Hundreds gather in Uptown Charlotte to honor the victims, survivors of 9/11
Never forget.
It’s a mantra that rings as true today as it did more than two decades ago when families across the nation’s lives were forever changed. In the days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, America grieved for its lost ones and banded together knowing things would never be the same.
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That sense of togetherness was felt throughout Romare Bearden Park on Friday, as hundreds came to honor the memory of those lost 25 years ago.
“Every one of us remembers where we were that morning,” said John Howell, a board member of the Firefighter Steven Coakley Foundation. “The shock, the fear, the disbelief. But for a moment in time we were all one people bound together by grief and resolve.”
Howell’s brother George DiPasquale was a firefighter with the New York City Fire Department. That day, DiPasquale and nine of his comrades were called to Tower 2 just after it was struck. None would return home, Howell said.
“They ran towards the danger with a clarity of purpose that still humbles us,” he said. “They showed us what courage looks like in its purest form.”
Howell spoke before those gathered as part of the annual “Flags and Lights of Remembrance” ceremony. The powerful tribute included seven bell tollings — six for each timestamp of the attack that day, and a seventh memorializing those who have passed and those who are sick from 9/11-related health conditions.
Nearly 3,000 American flags adorned the ground in the shape of the Twin Towers. They were decorated with photo cards and names of the victims who lost their lives that day. Walking alongside the tribute, people could see names like Army Maj. Dwayne Williams, a 40-year-old Jacksonville native who was one of 125 people killed inside the Pentagon that day.
They could also see names like Soo-Jin “Stuart” Lee, a 30-year-old vice president at DataSynapse and avid skier who was killed in the North Tower. Lee had just returned from a trip to his native Korea before heading to work that day.
Families, friends, co-workers were forever changed by the tragedy, Howell said.
“Each flag represents a life, a world, of relationships, memories, laughter, plans, dreams and love,” he said. “When we see these flags together we see the scale of what was taken from us.”
The solemn day brought together many who were all at different points in their lives when the tragedy struck. Some directly affected, others who saw from afar, but all knowing this was a moment that transformed the nation.
William Hanson, who lived in New York at the time, said he remembers the day like yesterday. Hanson, a 61-year-old veteran who was a truck mechanic at the time, said he was at the truck yard when a colleague pulled up and shouted a plane had just hit the towers.
He and his colleagues soon saw smoke in the sky.
“A short time later, everything got worse, you could hear the sirens,” Hanson said. “We really didn’t know what was going on.”
He lost two family members. His wife, Mary Beth Hanson, was supposed to be attending a meeting for Blue Cross Blue Shield in the World Trade Center that got canceled. She lost more than a dozen friends, Hanson said.
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He said he remembers later driving past train stations after the tragic day and seeing cars marked as officials tried to identify their owners. They were left by victims who never returned home.
Hanson said he also remembers the incredible sacrifice made by firemen and everyday civilians that died trying to help people get out.
“Twenty-five years later, I still find it hard to believe,” Hanson said. “It’s why every year I like to come and pay my respect.”
Yahir Galarza was also among those in attendance. Growing up just outside of Asheville he was only around five years old when 9/11 occurred.
“Back then we knew something was wrong, that something terrible had happened but in our young minds we didn’t quite fully understand what was going on,” Galarza said.
It was important for younger generations to be present at these events to pay their respects to those lost or directly impacted, he said.
“We’re all human at the end of the day,” Galarza said. “We have to be here for each other no matter what. We’re all children of God.”
Ahmad Halawi, with the Firefighter Steven Coakley Foundation, said the annual ceremony helps to not only honor the 2,977 lives that were lost that day, but also inform future generations.
Halawi was in fifth grade that day, but his teacher had a son in the World Trade Center. Although was too young to fully understand what was transpiring, it showed just how connected everyone became by the attacks, he said.
Twenty-five years later, being part of an organization that remembers this moment has been a full circle moment for him. Halawi said he’s thankful he can help commemorate the monumental sacrifice made by many.
“There were people who lost their lives that day, and even countless others who lost their lives after 9/11, that went into the buildings with one goal in mind: to protect and serve everyone in there,” he said. “They didn’t know what was happening, but did it for the greater good of all.”
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