"As they had lived and died" ~ 10th Anniversary of 9-11 Attacks

I can hear you say now "Jessica, you are like 3 days late on this posting," but truth is I started this actually a week before the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. I didn't want to rehash the events of that day, as I know nearly everyone old enough to remember, can remember the images and feelings of that day, just like it was 5 minutes ago.

I will say to this day, I still feel the same way concerning them as I did then. I still hold the same feeling of shock, saddness and the overwhelming power to do something. Now my doing something then was being a part of a Seach and Rescue team that assisted at the Pentagon, it was also enlisting in the US Army once I graduated high school and now it is supporting other firefighters and EMS providers that experienced the tragedy first hand and being there for them on each anniversary and any day that they need the emotional support.

So what I want to focus on is the 9-11 memorial that is in place, and opened to the public yesterday. I have been reading and watching and learning about this memorial and think that it is just an amazing way to pay tribute to all those who lost their lives on that day, but also celebrate their lives too.

Here is a quote from the 9-11 memorial webpage about how the names were arranged on the memorial.

"Memorial designer Michael Arad explains that the design concept “allows us to place the names of those who died that day next to each other in a meaningful way, marking the names of family and friends together, as they had lived and died." The names on the Memorial are arranged in a way that reflects the lives of the individuals they represent: their relationships with other victims, the companies they worked for, and where they were on 9/11."

How unqiue of a way to do such a memorial?! This next quote from the website had me in tears ~ families can find their loved ones so easily and meet other families who were impacted with the lost of a loved one who was directly associated with their family member. I think this will help create a tighter unity an support system for all the survivors and families across the country and world.

"Within those groupings are affiliations, many that correspond to companies. While affiliation names will not be inscribed on the Memorial, the names of victims from the same affiliations (for example, the names of employees and visitors to a company, or the members of each flight crew) will be together.

In the first responders section, names are arranged according to agency (for example, the New York City Fire Department) and unit (for example, Engine 10), as confirmed by the agencies. Both agencies and units have raised letter headings on the Memorial.

As part of the 9/11 Memorial’s official names verification process completed in 2009, victims’ next-of-kin made specific requests for names to appear adjacent to their loved one’s name (“adjacency requests”). Some of these requests were for relatives, friends, and colleagues; others were for loved ones to be listed with people they may have barely known or just met, but with whom intense bonds were quickly formed as a result of shared response. Over 1,200 of these requests were made and all are reflected on the Memorial. In fact, these requests drive the ordering the groupings on around the Memorial pools, the affiliations within them, and in many places, the placement of the names themselves."

Isn't that amazing?! I was very fortunate that I did not lose anyone directly related or very close to me in these events. My father was actually suppose to be at the WTCs that day and because of other family issues those plans were cancelled. All I can say is God works in such a way we will never fully understand (and sometimes, I don't think I want to either).

Every time I think about the terrorist attacks or the events their after I always hear the song "God Bless America" in my head and sometimes even sing it out loud. I cope through music ~ always have and probably always will. It is my life (yes, there is more to it than sewing believe it or not) and helps me get through the darkest of days out there.

I hope that this posting brings a new aspect on the events of September 11th, 2001 than just the images and phone recordings and the trauma that the media promotes each year.

If your family did something special to commemorate the anniversary, I would love to hear about it. We were at church, and our church was actually celebrating their 198th anniversary on Sunday, so we were doing that, but Saturday at my local Farmer's Market we had a special prayer from a speaker that belongs to the church across the street from the market and a moment of silence.

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