BROOKLYN, N.Y. (GrayDC) — A handball court in Brooklyn painted with the names of the neighborhood’s fallen has served as a gathering spot since the Twin Towers fell 25 years ago.
Millions visit the 9/11 Memorial in lower Manhattan each year. But this wall in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, belongs to the people who lived it.
National correspondent Debra Alfarone sat down with survivors and family members who have become friends, bonded by a tragedy they say they will never forget.
‘I could never forget that day’
Dirk Delph survived 9/11.
“People jumping from the building, thick smoke. Lots of debris. Big hole in the building. I could never forget that day,” Delph said.
When the first tower fell, the force threw Delph to the ground. He said he blacked out and was buried in debris for nearly two hours.
“It’s like day became night. I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t process what was happening. And, I’m walking, and I was tripping over bodies,” Delph said.
Delph said he was diagnosed with asthma and GERD at the 9/11 clinic.
“I had pneumonia four times, anxiety attacks, panic attacks. And I honestly believe that this – what I’m suffering from, whatever it is, will be my demise. I’m not proud to say it, but it makes me scared and nervous,” Delph said.
“I would think that my name could have been one of those names, you know, but I’m really suffering as a result,” Delph said.
A mother remembers
Mary Bracken’s daughter died on 9/11/01.
“She was on the 105th floor in the South Tower. Her son’s first day of school,” Bracken said.
Bracken’s daughter, Lucy Fishman, was working in the south tower of the World Trade Center. Her office sat 20 floors above where the plane hit. Fishman was 36 and a mother of two.
“I knew she was gone. I knew. A mother knows in their heart. They do,” Bracken said.
“You know, people die, and they, you know, you pray for them, but they’re allowed to go on. This is brought up every year, and it’s never forgotten,” Bracken said.
Bracken showed Alfarone a special shirt, covered in pins and photos.
“This shirt means so much to me. I know that sounds crazy, but that does not sound crazy to me. Why does it mean so much? Because when people look at it, they remember. It’s important that they do,” Bracken said.
Nearly 400 names on the wall
Fishman’s name is one of about 400 Brooklynites painted on the wall, known as the Brooklyn/Bedford Park 9/11 Memorial. There is no committee and no president, just a community that came together. Friends say it started with one man, known as Rockin’ Ray.
Carlos Rodriguez survived 9/11.
“I had two partners, actually. One died of brain cancer because of the 9/11. The older one had asbestosis, passed away out of that,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez was 24 and working as a sanitation police officer on 9/11/01. His job was to sift through rubble sent to the landfill.
“We had to search some of the debris to make sure that there were any body parts inside,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said he now suffers from sleep apnea, heart irregularities and emphysema.
“Now I’m having issues because I have — my memory. I have a memory loss. Short memory loss. That’s what I have. So a lot of times it takes me a while for me to kick in my words,” Rodriguez said.
Asked what it is like to look for victims as part of his job, Rodriguez paused.
“I got no words,” Rodriguez said.
A memorial grows
For 25 years, neighbors have held each other up at the handball court. Rodriguez said he wants to make sure the sacrifices of that day are not forgotten.
“Not to forget the victims that sacrifice themselves that day. Everybody that came together as a country because they didn’t just happen in New York. It happened in Washington, D.C. It happened, whatever happened, in Pennsylvania. And it seems that the generation now or generations to come, they forget what we actually went through that day,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez’s son, Giancarlo, was born years after 9/11 and grew up in the neighborhood. This year, he and his Boy Scout troop repainted the wall.
“He kept telling me, dad, I’m doing this for the victims of 9/11 and also for you, meaning as a first responder,” Rodriguez said.
Twenty-five years later, some paint may have faded, but Delph, Bracken, Rodriguez and hundreds of neighbors continue gathering and painting and remembering at the corner of Avenue X and Bedford Avenue in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.
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