This year marks the tenth anniversary of a date that many say has affected their lives forever. On Friday, almost a hundred public sector employees came together in downtown Tampa to christen the site of a memorial in honor of 9/11.
On September 11, 2001 terrorists’ goal was to impact the hearts of Americans by attacking those going about their everyday activities in New York’s Twin Towers and The Pentagon in Virginia. The first blow left people across the world in shock and afraid for their loved ones.
“My sister was Marline Garcia, she was 21 at the time of her death and she worked in the first tower that was hit on the 101 floor. It’s been years, hard to believe. We never found her body so we don’t have a place to go to bring her flowers. We saw this commemoration and we decided to come here,” said Yngrid Garcia from New York City. She remembered the day so vividly. Garcia said she received a call at 8:45 a.m. from her mother saying the towers were hit.
Hillsborough County welcomes many others just like her. The unifying event included citizens from all the neighboring cities, public safety organizations, county and city firemen, veterans, MacDill Air Force Base, The Veterans Council and the Department of Justice.
This article appears in Sep 8-14, 2011.