Posted: 11/23/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Wesley Fane Head bowed, Mark Chan, senior in LAS, listens to a prayer during a Sept. 11 Memorial Ceremony on Tuesday night at the Illini Union. Chan's brother Charles 'Chip' Chan, an Illinois alumnus, died in the attacks six years ago in New York City. The event held on the Union's South Patio included a presentation of the U.S. colors.

NEW YORK - The official ceremony for the sixth anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks was at a plaza a couple of blocks away, but for many families of the victims the most important memorials - quiet, personal and quick - were at ground zero.

Howard Gabler descended a ramp into the seven-story pit that used to be the trade center's basement. He kissed his hand and touched the ground.

That is as close as he can get to his son Fredric. Like so many victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, no remains of his have been identified.


"This is where he died, and we have nothing else," said Gabler, who escaped the north tower the morning it was attacked.

The city had sought to keep everyone away, citing ongoing construction at the site, but after the families pleaded for access, officials allowed them to descend the ramp, place flowers in a reflecting pool and linger for a moment.

Under a gray sky and bursts of rain, they descended the ramp quietly, some teary-eyed and holding each other for support.

"For us, this is her final resting place," Eleni Kousoulis said of her younger sister, Danielle, who died in the north tower. "So it's important for us to be able to go somewhere to remember her, and this is where we've come every year."

Like every Sept. 11 since that awful day, the names of the victims could be heard again at ground zero. This time, however, the sound was piped in by speakers from the stone plaza where they were read.

The change in location of the ceremony prompted some families to skip this year's memorial, which was also the first time the commemoration has been held on a Tuesday _ the day the attacks occurred in 2001. An estimated 3,500 family members and mourners turned out, down from 4,700 at the fifth anniversary.

Sal Romagnolo, whose son Joseph was killed, said he wasn't happy with the ceremony in its new location.

"I never got my son back. That's the only place we have," he said of the site of the fallen towers. "I get nothing out of this park."

Victims' relatives huddled under umbrellas, sometimes straining to hear the words of speakers over trucks and buses rumbling past the street behind them.

There seemed to be fewer tears than in past ceremonies, and readers did not speak at length, even when mentioning their loved ones. Hundreds of people streamed out of the ceremony after the first hour and fewer than 60 remained at the end of the ceremony.

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