A September 11 tradition is passed on to a new generation

NEW YORK (AP) — A poignant phrase echoes as families of the Sept. 11 victims gather each year to remember the loved ones they lost. the terrorist attacks.

“I never met you.”

It is the sound of generational change at Ground Zero, where relatives read out the names of the victims on every anniversary of the attacks. Almost 3,000 people were killed when al-Qaeda hijackers flew four planes into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a field in southwestern Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.

Some names are read out by children or young adults who were born after the strikes. Last year’s commemoration 28 of these young people were presented among more than 140 readers. Young people are also expected to attend this year's ceremony on Wednesday.

Some are the children of victims whose partners were pregnant. Many of the young readers are nieces, nephews or grandchildren of the victims. They have inherited stories, photographs and a sense of solemn responsibility.

Being a “9/11 family” resonates across generations and in memory and the understanding of the September 11 attacks will one day be left to a world that has no firsthand memory of them.

“It’s like passing the torch,” says 13-year-old Allan Aldycki.

He has read the names of his grandfather and several others over the past two years and plans to do so on Wednesday. Aldycki keeps memorabilia in his room of his grandfather, Allan Tarasiewicz, who was a firefighter.

The teenager told the audience last year that he had heard so much about his grandfather that it felt like he knew him, “but still, I wish I had the chance to really get to know you,” he added.

Allan volunteered to be a reader because it makes him feel closer to his grandfather and he hopes his children will join in.

“It's an honor to be able to teach them because you can teach them about their heritage and what they must never forget,” he said by phone from central New York. He said he already teaches colleagues who know little or nothing about 9/11.

When the time comes for the ceremony, he seeks information about the life of each person whose name he is to read.

“He thinks about everything and understands what it means to someone,” said his mother, Melissa Tarasiewicz.

Reciting the names of the dead is a tradition that extends beyond Ground Zero. War memorials honor fallen military personnel by speaking their names aloud. Some Jewish organizations hold readings of the names of Holocaust victims on Yom HaSho'ah, the international day of remembrance.

The names of the 168 people killed in the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City are read annually at the memorial site there.

On the anniversaries of September 11, military personnel or officials read the names of the 184 people who died at the ceremony at the Pentagon. At the Flight 93 National Memorial, relatives and friends of the victims read the list of the 40 passengers and crew members who lost their lives at the rural site near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The hour-long commemoration at the 9/11 Memorial in New York is dedicated almost exclusively to the names of the 2,977 victims at all three locations, as well as the six people who died in the Bomb attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. All are read by relatives who volunteer and are selected by lot.

Everyone is given a selection of names to read aloud. Readers also generally speak briefly about their own lost relatives, often with touching detail.

“I often think that if you were still here, you would be one of my best friends, looking at colleges with me, helping me out of trouble with Mom and Dad, hanging out on the New Jersey shore,” Capri Yarosz said last year of her slain uncle, New York City firefighter Christopher Michael Mozzillo.

The now 17-year-old grew up with a homemade baby book about him and a family in which he is still mentioned in everyday life.

“Chris would have loved that” is a phrase we hear often in our house.

She read twice at the ceremony at the World Trade Center.

“It means a lot to me to be able to keep my uncle's name alive and keep everyone else's names alive so more of the future generations can know about it,” she said by phone from her family's home in central New Jersey. “It feels good to be able to pass on the meaning of what happened.”

Her two younger sisters have also read names, and one is preparing to do so again on Wednesday. Their mother, Pamela Yarosz, could never bring herself to sign up.

“I don't have that strength. It's too hard for me,” says Pamela Yarosz, Mozzillo's sister. “They are braver.”

Callaway Treble, 18, says his generation of 9/11 families must carry on the memory of the victims. He lost his aunt Gabriela Silvina Waisman, an office manager at a software company.

“We use the phrase 'never forget' for 9/11 all the time, but it's extremely important to keep that in practice and make sure that we actually don't forget that thousands of people died in an attack on our country. I think it's our responsibility to do that,” said Treble, who has read names several times since he was 13.

Meanwhile, many of the Children of victims of September 11 – like Melissa Tarasiewicz, who had just finished high school when her father died – have long since grown up. But about 100 were born after One of her parents died in the attacks; both are now young adults.

“Although we never met, I am honored to carry your name and legacy with me. Thank you for giving me this life and this family,” Manuel DaMota Jr. said of his father, a carpenter and project manager, during the ceremony last year.

At the event, the little readers remembered one after the other the aunts, uncles, great-uncles, grandfathers and grandmothers that the children had missed throughout their lives.

“My father has said all my life that I remind him of you.”

“I wish you could go fishing with me.”

“I wish I had more of you than just a picture in a frame.”

“Even though I never got to know you, I will never forget you.”