The Vocal Chamber Chorus of Livingston High School performs “Let There Be Peace on Earth,” a fitting hymn of hope, strength and love during Sunday evening’s Ceremony of Remembrance. Andy Anderson, who responded to Ground Zero with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, photographed the images of the families, friends, neighbors – the community – coming together in remembrance of the seven Livingston residents who died on Sept. 11. “Ten years ago, in the face of this tragedy, Livingston came together, neighbors helping neighbors, reconnecting with each other and helping each other heal,” Mayor…
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 10th anniversary. The sky turned from grey to dark, with the intermittent sounds of…
This morning, from my home in South Orange, I heard the church bells toll at 8:46, signaling the beginning of the horrific events on Sept. 11. As I write this, the sirens blare again at 1 p.m. in national remembrance of this haunting anniversary. I hug my daughter for there are no words left to say. Down the street, children play at the park. And there is even the music of an ice cream truck. Ten years ago, there was sheer silence. “The skies quieted from the planes flying over,” recalled Rev. Dan Martian in his sermon Sunday at First Presbyterian Church of Livingston. “It was like a sacred …
Is today a different day than yesterday? my daughter asked after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers. Holly saw our tears. She saw our fears. And while we tried to comfort our children, we grappled with ways to help the families -- our neighbors and our friends -- who lost loved ones that day. That journey led us to Mexico, where Roberto Espinoza-Rufino was at work driving a cab in Tijuana the day his daughter was born. His wife, Maria, gave birth in another cab, a broken-down junker set on cinder blocks on their land with ocean view. Two toddlers played on the windy hilltop …
Hundreds gathered on the northeast waterfront of Liberty State Park in Jersey City Saturday afternoon to pause for a moment of silence in remembrance of the 2,977 people who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. That moment was part of an hour-long ceremony to unveil a new memorial titled “Empty Sky” that names the 746 New Jersey residents killed on that clear September morning. Unlike the hours and days following 9/11 when the New York City airways were eerily quiet and the Twin Towers in pieces, the sky above lower Manhattan on Saturday seemed anything but empty. Helicopters buzzed…
At the end of the month I will celebrate my 20th birthday. It will also signify that half of my life has come in the post 9/11 world. A nation filled with sadness, confusion and yet at the same time togetherness, strength and determination to return to normal. To me, Sept. 11, 2001 was just any other day in the literal sense of the term. Many people can recall where they were the exact place and time the first reports of the nation being under siege emerged, similar to the attack on Pearl Harbor in the 1940s. I cannot. No, as a fifth grader at Burnet Hill Elementary School, I along with my …
Photojournalist Veronica L. Yankowski considers the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks the most life-changing assignment of her career. The stark images Yankowski captured will be on display this month at the Rutherford Public Library, 150 Park Ave., as part of a 10th-anniversary memorial exhibit. The opening reception will take place noon to 4 p.m. Sept. 10 and the exhibit will run until the end of the month. This is an excerpt of her remembrance behind the lens at Ground Zero. ... I have no words to describe the enormity of the destruction. In order for me to do my job, I went into autopilot and tried …
Editor's Note: On Sunday, Livingston will honor the lives of seven residents who died on Sept. 11 -- Luke A. Dudek, Jeffrey Brian Gardner, Donald Thomas Jones II, Ming-Hao Liu, Joseph P. McDonald, John M. Pocher, and Kenneth Albert Zelman. Dozens more died in the towns that surround us, including Mark Charette of Millburn. His family opened their homes to Patch editor Laura Griffin. This is their story. The weekend before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Mark Charette took his family on a hike in the South Mountain Reservation and stopped to look at the skyline, pointing out …
On Friday, school children at Livingston’s public schools wore red, white and blue in a simple nod in remembrance of the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11. On Saturday, 3,000 crosses will be planted at The Crossing Church in honor of those who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks. As neighbors come together to reflect and honor on how our lives have changed, a siren will blast at 1 p.m. Sunday for us all to pause. Church bells will signal special services. Musicians will raise their instruments to express what words alone cannot. “The day was achingly beautiful," Eleonore Cohen, the mayor of …
A member of the Newark Fire Department for 22 years, Capt. John Wilson never wanted to be a fireman. But marrying the daughter of Bronx Battalion Chief William Regan changed his mind. "He told me, 'You have to become a fireman now that you married my daughter,'" recalled Wilson, 47. "It never occurred to me to take the test. Now, here I am, 25 years later, and it's the best move I ever made." Wilson's career as a Newark fireman has taken shape thanks to a sheer passion for art and teaching, and through the guidance of his father-in-law Regan, whom he worked with at Ground Zero a decade ago. …
Stephen Stiller, a New York City firefighter left behind five young children when he died on 9/11 after running through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel to the burning World Trade Center. Ken Styles was in his office on the 44th floor when the first plane struck Tower One. He led Port Authority workers to safety, a 45-minute journey down the stairs to the smoke-filled street. Their lives, and the life of Judith Novellino, a beloved Morris Catholic High School teacher, will come together on Sunday, Sept. 11, in an evening of music in remembrance of 9/11. Ilene Greenbaum, well-known music director …
In the 10 years since 9/11, Livingston has built its own memorial in the town’s center, a place we know locally as the Oval. It is a spot where the community regularly comes together for music and fireworks, sports and veteran salutes. Today a garden blooms for contemplation and healing and features a sundial made from pieces of steel removed from the rubble of the World Trade Center. Seven sides of the octagonal-shaped garden remember the residents who lost their lives on September 11, 2001: Luke A. Dudek, Jeffrey Brian Gardner, Donald Thomas Jones II, Ming-Hao Liu, Joseph P. McDonald, John …
Editor's Note: Today, children at Livingston Public Schools will wear red, white and blue in honor of Sept. 11. These photos are from 10 years ago, a different day, a mother's remembrance of wondering what to tell her children and how the children began the healing by making construction-paper flags at school. We all remember where we were when we first heard it. I was in line at the Shop-Rite deli counter. I recognized the woman in front of me as a local store clerk. I'll never forget her now. She was talking on her cell with someone in NYC and shared the news of a plane hitting the World …
Waiting nine months for a biological child feels like a long time, but when you’re an adoptive parent, that wait can be much longer. And if that interval is made even longer because of unforeseen circumstances, like those on Sept. 11, 2001, it becomes practically unbearable. But that’s what happened to Livingston’s Sara and Tom Tanner who were two years into the adoption process on the day of the terrorist attacks. “We received a call from the adoption agency that day, telling us that we had been selected," Sara said. "The call was a total surprise. I thought our case worker was calling to…
The birth of a first child is “a defining moment,” says Lisa Fellen-Saurborn. Her son Ryan was born 10 years ago, and she recalls the days leading up to his birth vividly. Due on Sept. 4, Ryan was late and Lisa was eager to meet her first child. Her husband was at a meeting at Windows on the World that day, but there was no need to call him home. Lisa didn’t feel the first twinges of labor until nearly a week later. Shortly after dropping her husband off at his office in Manhattan on Sept. 10, she called and told him to take the next train to Maplewood. Lisa thought Ryan would arrive that day…
Don't be alarmed by the sound of sirens and bells in Livingston on Sunday. This week, Mayor Rudy Fernandez, on behalf of the township council, proclaimed that the township would observe a moment of remembrance at 1 p.m. lasting approximately one minute. This comes as an addition to the Remembrance Ceremony that will be held in the 9/11 Memorial Garden near the Oval on Sunday evening at 7 p.m. In July, the Senate passed a resolution, introduced by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), to call on towns nationwide to observe a moment of rememberance as a way of paying tribute to those who lost their …
The day was achingly beautiful, the event diabolical and life changing and the loss incalculable. When the Twin Towers went down we in Livingston lost seven residents and the nation lost its sense of national security ... it could and did happen here. Livingston has a township manager who is responsible for the day-to-day activities in the township. The mayor and council act as a board of governors who set policy and establish the rules, regulations, statutes and budget. On Tuesday September 11, 2001, Chuck Tahany, the township manager, was in western New Jersey and unreachable. I was …
The light was unmistakable. Not from the flames, dripping through the ceiling of an abandoned hallway, but from the sun, the actual sun. And there in the stairwell, at nearly 1,000 feet above the ground, a soft breeze carried the air – fresh air from the east – in through a gaping hole in the side of the skyscraper on a cloudless morning in New York City. Reflecting on that day nearly a decade ago, there’s a hint of regret in John Pyndus’ voice as he recalls seeing, with unparalleled clarity, the faces of those he knew who would never make it out alive. Perhaps it’s simply a realization, …
County officials unveiled the newest addition to the Sept. 11 Memorial at Essex County's Eagle Rock Reservation on Wednesday morning — a bronze plaque honoring emergency medical technicians who responded to 9/11. During the hour-long ceremony, fog settled over the reservation obscuring the otherwise clear view of New York City. Nearly 10 years ago, the city's horizon was again shrouded in gray — enveloped by soot, smoke and dust. But while some first responders rushed to Ground Zero, many Essex County emergency medical service personnel remained on this side of the Hudson River waiting for …
I was representing the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office at a meeting in Jamesburg on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 when I first heard the news a plane had crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center. It wasn’t until I heard the news that a second plane had struck the towers that I knew at once that our country was under attack. We adjourned and watched television in silence as our pagers went off and we were called back to our offices to help. I was not alive on Dec. 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, but the experience for Americans then must have been similar to …
