BROOKLYN, N.Y. (GrayDC) \u2014 A handball court in Brooklyn painted with the names of the neighborhood\u2019s fallen has served as a gathering spot since the Twin Towers fell 25 years ago.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u2018I could never forget that day\u2019<\/p>\n
Dirk Delph survived 9\/11.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople jumping from the building, thick smoke. Lots of debris. Big hole in the building. I could never forget that day,\u201d Delph said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like day became night. I couldn\u2019t see anything. I couldn\u2019t process what was happening. And, I\u2019m walking, and I was tripping over bodies,\u201d Delph said.<\/p>\n
Delph said he was diagnosed with asthma and GERD at the 9\/11 clinic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had pneumonia four times, anxiety attacks, panic attacks. And I honestly believe that this – what I\u2019m suffering from, whatever it is, will be my demise. I\u2019m not proud to say it, but it makes me scared and nervous,\u201d Delph said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would think that my name could have been one of those names, you know, but I\u2019m really suffering as a result,\u201d Delph said.<\/p>\n
A mother remembers<\/p>\n
Mary Bracken\u2019s daughter died on 9\/11\/01.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was on the 105th floor in the South Tower. Her son\u2019s first day of school,\u201d Bracken said.<\/p>\n
Bracken\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew she was gone. I knew. A mother knows in their heart. They do,\u201d Bracken said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, people die, and they, you know, you pray for them, but they\u2019re allowed to go on. This is brought up every year, and it\u2019s never forgotten,\u201d Bracken said.<\/p>\n
Bracken showed Alfarone a special shirt, covered in pins and photos.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis 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\u2019s important that they do,\u201d Bracken said.<\/p>\n
Nearly 400 names on the wall<\/p>\n
Fishman\u2019s 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\u2019 Ray.<\/p>\n
Carlos Rodriguez survived 9\/11. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had two partners, actually. One died of brain cancer because of the 9\/11. The older one had asbestosis, passed away out of that,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to search some of the debris to make sure that there were any body parts inside,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez said he now suffers from sleep apnea, heart irregularities and emphysema.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I\u2019m having issues because I have \u2014 my memory. I have a memory loss. Short memory loss. That\u2019s what I have. So a lot of times it takes me a while for me to kick in my words,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
Asked what it is like to look for victims as part of his job, Rodriguez paused.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got no words,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
A memorial grows<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot to forget the victims that sacrifice themselves that day. Everybody that came together as a country because they didn\u2019t 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,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe kept telling me, dad, I\u2019m doing this for the victims of 9\/11 and also for you, meaning as a first responder,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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