POINT LOOKOUT, Long Island (WABC) — Survivors, victims’ relatives and first responders gathered at a sunrise ceremony in Point Lookout on Friday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, reflecting on enduring grief, remembrance and healing.<\/p>\n
For those who were downtown when the towers collapsed, it is something they will never forget. But for many who were not in New York City that day, the trauma came from waiting for information about loved ones and watching smoke rise over the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n
Bagpipes played as attendees filed into the ceremony, where speakers and community members remembered the 497 Long Islanders killed in the attacks and the continuing toll of illnesses linked to Sept. 11.<\/p>\n
“It feels like it was yesterday. It really does. It feels like it’s yesterday,” said Teresa Moran, a Sept. 11 victim’s relative.<\/p>\n
Mourners reflected not only on those lost on Sept. 11, 2001, but also on those who died in the years that followed from 9\/11-related illnesses.<\/p>\n
More than 300 names were added to memorial walls at the site last year alone.<\/p>\n
The ceremony’s keynote speaker, Dorine Hetzel-Dand, spoke about losing both her brother and her husband to tragedies connected to Sept. 11.<\/p>\n
Her brother, Thomas, a firefighter and father, was killed in the attacks. Her husband, Christopher, a first responder, died recently after battling a rare form of leukemia that was described as a 9\/11-related cancer.<\/p>\n
“Since Christopher’s passing, I have begun traveling again to bring joy into my life…to fight my grief, which has been with me for half of my life,” Hetzel-Dand said.<\/p>\n
Others at the ceremony shared memories of colleagues and friends they lost that day.<\/p>\n
“All my friends got killed. I lived,” said retired NYPD Emergency Service Unit Officer Thomas Gillan. “I loved them all, it’s so sad. They grew up without their fathers, they grew up without everybody, it’s so sad, it’s insane.”<\/p>\n
Attendees returned to the oceanside memorial to pay their respects and remember those who were lost, while helping educate younger generations who have no memory of Sept. 11.<\/p>\n
For many gathered in Point Lookout on Friday, the anniversary was both a day of remembrance and a continuing step in the healing process, in a place they said has brought them a sense of peace.<\/p>\n
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