9-11 Remembrance Ceremonies bring tears and healing to communities


In West Springfield the VFW Post 6714 Honor Guard and the Ladies Auxiliary Color Guard and police officers stand in front of the city's 9-11 monument dedicated to native Melissa Harrington Hughes who died in the North Tower. Reminder Publications photo by Katelyn Gendron-List

By Katelyn Gendron-List

Reminder Assistant Editor

The charcoal colored clouds and rain seemed very fitting for this day.

As raindrops fell over Western Massachusetts so did the tears fall from the cheeks of relatives and friends who'd lost loved ones in the senseless attacks of 9-11.

Residents of West Springfield, Agawam and Westfield gathered at their 9-11 Memorials to pay tribute to the victims of that day six years ago and to honor those in the armed forces still fighting against terrorism.

At 8:46 a.m., West Springfield residents, the VFW Post 6714 Honor Guard, the Ladies Auxiliary Color Guard and many public officials gathered at the Town Common. Here a monument stands dedicated to Melissa Harrington Hughes, a West Springfield native who died that day. An eternal flame burns at the top of the stone sculpture in memory of all those who perished that day.

Harrington Hughes was attending a corporate conference on the 101st floor of the North Tower that morning.

Her father and West Springfield resident Bob Harrington said she was living with her husband in San Francisco, CA at the time but had flown into New York City for a company meeting.

"She called me after the first plane hit and asked me what to do," Harrington said as he tried to hold back tears. "She was hysterical and I couldn't understand her. I told her to find a stairwell and get out."

Harrington added that he was the last relative to speak with his daughter alive. Her husband received only a message on their answering machine professing her love for him before the collapse of the North Tower.

He said that on this day, like everyday he visited his daughter's gravesite in West Springfield. Her body was one of the first recovered at Ground Zero he added.

Harrington said he felt honored to see so many people gathering together to remember his daughter and all of those lost their lives in the attacks.

But for the Harrington family Sept. 11 will now be a day of celebration and a day of mourning as Harrington's daughter-in-law gave birth to a son, Cooper, at 10:05 p.m.

"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away," he said.

In Agawam at 9:45 a.m., residents gathered at their 9-11 memorial sculpture in front of the Fire Department Headquarters. The monument, which was adorned with floral wreaths, is a stone sculpture of the World Trade Center as it stood before the attacks.

The ceremony was one that failed to stop after the rain began to pour down within the first five minutes. People gathered under umbrellas as Agawam fire fighters and policemen remained standing at parade rest throughout the downpour.

Various city officials such as George Bitzas, Agawam City Councilor, Master of Ceremonies and designer of the memorial, Stephen Martin, Deputy Fire Chief and Dr. Rev. Raymond Flower spoke of their commitment to paying tribute to those who perished and those who worked to save others.

"We remember those who bravely entered the devil's cloud of dust and debris and did not return to their homes and loved ones that night," Flower said in his speech at the remembrance ceremony. "We are inspired by their courage, stunned by their sacrifice and challenged by their example. They have rightly earned the title of 'heroes.'"

At 6 p.m. citizens of Westfield, acting mayor Charles Medeiros, members of the American Legion and the Westfield Fire and Police departments came together at the Sons of Erin pavilion to honor three Westfield natives who were killed in the attacks.

The somber music of bagpipes guided people to the pavilion as they stood adjacent to their 9-11 monument a brick memorial adorning the names of the three killed: Tara Creamer, Brian Murphy and Daniel Trant.

According to Pat Murphy, who led the ceremony, Creamer was a buyer for TJ Maxx traveling in the plane to Los Angeles. Murphy and Trant were working in the towers.

Mary Trant, Daniel Trant's mother said that because her son's remains were never recovered he was a bond trader in the North Tower she attends the ceremony to visit the monument as his unofficial resting place. She added that she has never considered Ground Zero as his gravesite.

Every year, Trant said life without her son seems to get a bit easier when she travels from her home in Florida to Westfield, "a place where he was dearly loved."

"Losing three people was an awful shock to our tight knit club," Murphy said. "We all felt really bad here. But all of the families look forward to this every year. It's a sense of closure for them."