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Mostly Cloudy Honoring, remembering 9/11 victims
Despite rain, residents turn out for ceremonies
By Mary Malloy and Anthony Bottan
Changing the venue for the East Rockaway 9/11 Memorial Service due to rain seemed like a small inconvenience last Friday evening, when almost 200 people filled Village Hall to honor, remember and pray for the victims of the tragedy that touched and, in some way, changed all of the survivors’ lives eight years ago at the World Trade Center.
“The rain and wind cannot sweep away the heroism, the bravery and the memories of loved ones,” said village Trustee Irene Villacci, who coordinated the village-sponsored ceremony, as she greeted the crowd. “The American spirit continues to soar since the towers fell. Tonight, as every year since, we will remember.”
With bagpipes playing, a Boy Scout color guard marched into Village Hall’s main room, flags raised. Molloy student and East Rockaway resident Tom Barone sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” as dozens of voices joined in.
Standing in the front row, as they have every year since they lost their firefighter son, Patrick, in the attacks, Anne and Patrick O’Keefe, both 83, of East Rockaway, stood shoulder to shoulder, their loss still etched on their faces.
“He called his wife, Karen, and said he was going in,” Anne O’Keefe said, without prompting, referring to the events that morning. “He called her when he got to the tower.”
Patrick, the second youngest of the O’Keefes’ five children, attended St. Raymond’s School and East Rockaway High School. He was a firefighter with Rescue 1 in Manhattan when he got the emergency call to go to the World Trade Center, and died after he entered the north tower. He was 44, and left behind his wife and two children — Jennifer, now 26, and Timothy, now 22.
“This service gets better every year,” said Anne. “It’s something you never get over ... but we always choose to come to [East Rockaway’s] ceremonies. It was just lovely this year.”
The Rev. Stephen Hurkens, pastor of the Nazarene Church in East Rockaway, said that Sept. 11, 2001, was “the day that the world changed.”
“This event will forever be memorialized and remembered,” Hurkens said, “not only by those who were directly affected by the loss of a loved one, but by every true, red-blooded American.”
