NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — For the families of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the pain and heartbreak of losing their loved ones remains as fresh as it did 20 years ago.
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As she has every year on this day, Ena Softley joined the crowd of victims' relatives at ground zero for the annual remembrance ceremony to pay her respects and mourn all the lives lost in the attacks, including her nephew, firefighter Keithroy Marcellus Maynard.
"Brave heroes and everyone should be very proud of them. You have to be very brave to want to go into a burning building, nobody wants to do that because you might never come out. You have to be a very brave person to leave your family behind and not think about them, but of that building that's burning people that you do not even know. My nephew was like that and everyone that went with him. They were brave heroes," she said.
For Softley and her family, 9/11 feels like it was just yesterday.
"His mother grieved and she grieved, and his brothers grieved, and his twin brother grieved, and they're always going to grieve for him and everyone else," said Softley, who vows to return to ground zero on Sept. 11 every year. "I have to because we have to keep his memory alive and not only him. We are here for him, but another family is here for another, another family is here for him so that's how we keep this circle connected."
Gabrielle Gabrielli brought a bouquet of sunflowers to the memorial.
"I'm here for my godfather and uncle, Richard Gabrielle," she said.
Her godfather worked for AON Corporation on the 103rd floor of the South Tower.
"I want them to know that my godfather and uncle was probably one of the most witty, kind, compassionate people you would ever meet in your life. He kept the entire family laughing, he was such a kind person, in fact he let everybody on the 78th floor go in front of him on the elevator and he was making jokes to try to calm everyone down and all of his coworkers who were there with him made it out alive," she said.
During the recovery operation at ground zero, she volunteered. She now has leukemia.
"You know what I have no complaints, I'm alive. I just embrace everyday and I'm in chemo now and I'm just thankful to be here," she said.
Elliot Rodriguez wore a T-shirt featuring a large photograph of his only brother, Abner Morales, to the memorial service.
Coworkers in the South Tower saw Morales in action on Sept. 11, 2001.
"They saw him on the 96th floor. He didn't want to go down, he just wanted to go up and help people. I spoke to him before the plane struck, the second plane on the South Tower, I was on the phone with him telling him to leave the building. Unfortunately when I was talking to him the other plane hit and we got cut off," Morales said.
Twenty years ago, Rodriguez a union excavator pitched in and helped in the recovery effort.
"I did clean up, did truck work," said Rodriguez, who is now sick. "My lungs are bad, my back is shot, my shoulders are shot. All I did was try to help people and tried to see if I could find him (his brother)."
On a day forever linked to horror and terror, Alison Crowther chooses instead to focus on good.
Her son, Welles Crowther, was the man in the red bandana. A young volunteer firefighter from Upper Nyack, Crowther took charge amid the smoke and chaos. He carried a woman over his shoulder, he ushered others to safety, and climbed the stairs of the World Trade Center again to rescue even more.
"The best way to honor Welles' memory, for all of us to honor our loved ones who have lost their memories, is to not only be the best people we can possible be ourselves and in our lives, but to work hard to make this world a better place," Alison Crowther said.
So many families have done just that over the past 20 years through charities and acts of kindness. They have responded to hatred with love.
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