Kenneth Zelman, smiling, forever 36, hung from his brother’s neck, a laminated 8 x 10 photo that has seen its share of Sept. 11 events.

It’s the same photo tucked beside a plaque engraved with Livingston’s losses at the township’s 9-11 Memorial Garden, a place of quiet contemplation just off the Oval that honors the memories of Zelman, Luke A. Dudek, Jeffrey Brian Gardner, Donald Thomas Jones II, Ming-Hao Liu, Joseph P. McDonald, and John M. Pocher.

Last night, the community came together in remembrance of the 10^th anniversary. The sky turned from grey to dark, with the intermittent sounds of insects joining the voices of a high school choir sweetly singing about peace on earth, a father and daughter playing taps, and the reading of names of the residents Livingston lost.

“In just a few years from now, there will be students in the school over there,” observed Sen. Richard Codey, nodding to Livingston High School, “who will have no memory (of 9/11). It’s up to us to make them understand the cruelty of humanity that day and pray to God that never again shall we see something like we saw 10 years ago.”

Hundreds gathered Sunday to pay tribute. First responders – Livingston’s volunteer fire fighters and emergency technicians – stood in salute with uniformed police and dozens of veterans, their hats showing alliance to foreign wars, the American Legion, and Jewish War Veterans.

Scouts, boys and girls, led the flag honor guard, in the audience, eyes filling with tears while reciting the Pledge of Alliance. The littlest of the scouts placed white roses on a sundial designed with pieces of the World Trade Tower rubble.

Barry Zelman showed his brother’s photograph to the crowd. “A picture’s worth a thousand words,” he said. “If you went to Ground Zero today, you’d see pictures like this, thousands of them, and it gives you a sense of the enormity of the murder down there 10 years ago. My brother wasn’t so lucky. He didn’t make it home."

Joel Katz did make it home that day, and he told his story of survival from the 104th floor of Tower Two, amidst the chaos and fear, the sirens, screaming and crying.

He recalled the crystal clear day, an early meeting, and the deafening roar at 8:45 a.m. that “shook the entire floor” where he stood on the trading floor of Sandler O'Neill, and his decision to leave immediately despite being told his tower was safe. “It didn’t add up, and I wanted to get down,” he said. (A third of his co-workers died that day, and Katz invited listeners to learn more about the company on a 60 Minutes report linked here).

“Time as healed the immediate grief, but I think of Sept. 11 every day,” he said.

Just eight years earlier, Donald Thomas Jones II, the son of former Livingston police chief Don Jones, had calmly led many people, including a woman in labor, down 100 floors following the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center, a hero among the 3,000 dead in 2001.

William Jones goes to the WTC site to talk with his brother on these days of remembrance, this year on a bus with more than 50 family members for the 10th anniversary, a trip not denied despite reports of terrorist threats, he said.

Livingston had its share of first responders 10 years ago. “The thick dust that permeated the 
landscape soon clung to our shoes and clothes, almost as if it were trying to absorb us into the colorless landscape,” recalled Andy Anderson, now retired from the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office. “Cars, fire engines, ambulances, and debris
 were all caked with dust giving everything the same dull grey 
hue. 

Gary Mankowitz of the Livingston Police Department and about a dozen other officers supported crisis teams and clean up on Staten Island. Livingston firefighters provided mutual aid to Brooklyn stations.

Scott Maynard of the Livingston First Aid Squad walked across the Queensboro Bridge from his office to lend support at Roosevelt Hospital. He was stunned when told, “We don’t need you. We didn’t get anybody.”

Last night, as residents slowly began to adjust their eyes from the garden lighting to the night sky, a girl reached for her father’s hand. "Daddy,” she said. “I'm glad you're here."

L. Klonsky, Andy Anderson, and Walter Joyce contributed to Patch’s coverage of the Ceremony of Remembrance. Hear the LHS Vocal Chamber Chorus under the direction of Joshua Salzman sing “Let There Be Peace on Earth” with a photomontage of the ceremony here. The ceremony was presented by the 9-11 Garden Committee; Bunnie Ratner, ceremony organizer.