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New Yorkers observe 9/11 anniversary

By Michael Clancy | amNewYork City Editor

September 12, 2006

It took four hours Monday to read the names of the 2,749 killed on Sept. 11, 2001 -- from Gordon M. Aamoth, Jr. to Igor Zukelman.

The long litany of names read at Ground Zero on the fifth anniversary of the attacks drove home the enormity of that day's human destruction.

But it was the asides, when the survivors spoke directly from the podium to the deceased, that conveyed the individual pain caused by each and every loss.

"Amanda is eight. Isabelle is six. Lucy died in April. We hope she is with you," said Naoemi Gullickson, addressing her late husband, FDNY Lt. Joseph Gullickson, after she read aloud other "G" names from the death toll.

"Baby, I love you," said another reader, Richard Pecorella, who lost his fiancé Karen Juday. "Save a spot for me."

"Our boys will know all about you and what a wonderful daddy they had for such a short time," Jeanette Schardt said to her husband, John Albert Schardt.

As was done in the past four anniversaries, the reading of names was paused four times to commemorate the moment that planes struck the north and south towers, and when each tower fell. In years past, the names were read by siblings, parents and children. This year they were read by the significant others of the victims.

After the final pause at 10:29 a.m., Wynton Marsalis played a trumpet solo that started with a sad melody, but ended with the sound of hope.

This year, Mayor Bloomberg, Gov. Pataki, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine shared bits of poetry on life and loss.

Police officer Jim Smith brought his daughter, Patricia, with him to the podium as he praised his wife, Officer Moira Smith, the only female officer killed in the terrorist attack.

"I am honored to have been her husband and I'm grateful to have our child to raise, helping her to understand her mother was and still is the PRIDE of New York City," Smith said.

As the names and tributes were read aloud, family members made their way down the ramp to two reflecting pools symbolizing each tower and laid roses in the pools where the evening before President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush laid wreaths.

Monday's bright sun and blue skies made more than one person recall the nearly cloudless skies and sunshine that started off the Sept. 11 of 2001.

"It was one of the most beautiful days," said Carmen Garcia referring to the weather when her daughter, Marlyn Garcia, a 21-year-old file clerk at Marsh & McLennan, was killed. "But it was also the saddest day we ever had."

Another of Carmen¹s daughters Tania Garcia said the passage of five years hasn't made it any easier or harder to cope with the loss of her sister.

"Sometimes it feels like just yesterday," Tania Garcia said after the memorial. "But sometimes it feels like we haven't seen her in decades."