A Last Goodbye
Victims’ families hold a vigil of their own at Ground Zero

Photo: Giuliani at the service. (AP Photo/Stephen Chernin)
Jun 2, 2002

By Bobby Cuza
STAFF WRITER

June 3, 2002

Religious leaders tossed flower petals and sprinkled holy water. A pipe and drum band played "Amazing Grace." Doves flew skyward.

Their eyes clear with grief, hundreds of people paid one last homage yesterday to relatives who died where tall buildings stood.

The solemn Ground Zero service was conceived as an alternative for families who could not attend the city's official memorial Thursday.

Yesterday's ceremony was the product of just a few days' planning by family members. It was also fitted in at the last possible moment, because today the scarred acreage officially becomes a construction site, where a memorial is also to be built.

As the NYPD-FDNY pipe and drum band played, tear-filled eyes traced the path of the freed doves, symbols of "peace, love and the beauty of the human spirit," in the words of Nicole Petrocelli, whose husband died in the World Trade Center attack.

With apt poetic symmetry, the birds sailed over the site in unison, then banked to the west and disappeared behind the World Financial Center.

"There's hope beyond the grave," said the Rev. Bill Minson, standing behind a lectern adorned with photographs of the lost. "You need not be troubled or have your hearts be broken forever. You will heal in time from this."

Family members also lighted four ceremonial candles: one for the victims, one for families, one for Ground Zero rescue workers and other volunteers and one for peace.

Many held pictures of lost loved ones aloft.

When the half-hour ceremony was over, many pressed against the chain-link fence marking the site's southern boundary, looking at the seven-story pit where the twin towers once stood.

"I think this ceremony today was really more for the families, and by the families - rather than by the politicians," said Cathy Scullin of Flushing, who lost her husband, Arthur Warren Scullin, 57, in Tower One. "I'm very glad I came."

Though the strains of bagpipes and the patriotic hymns recalled the endless string of memorials not long ago, families must now face the reality that the recovery has ended. Rebuilding begins now.

For many, the notion does not sit well.

"It's very sad to me to know that the next time I come here, they're gonna be building on top of my son," said Diane Horning, whose son, Matthew D. Horning, 26, worked on the 95th floor of Tower One. "It's bad enough that 100 floors fell on him. But then now, we're actually going to put new buildings on top of him. It's very upsetting."

Some family members chided Mayor Michael Bloomberg for not attending the service, which did not include political speakers. Those on hand included former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who received a round of applause as he entered.

Bloomberg defended his decision on WABC/770 AM, saying, "The danger with all of these ceremonies is that they become political events ... this time, I just thought I shouldn't go."

"If he wanted to be here, he would have been here," said Rosemary Cain of Massapequa, who lost her son, Firefighter George Cain. "This wasn't for the politicians anyway. That's not what this is about ... It's about families that have broken hearts, and how they can relate. That's what it's about. It's not about anything else."
Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.