East Longmeadow Fire Chief Christopher Beecher addresses the audience, flanked by members of the Fire Department.
Reminder Publishing photos by Sarah Heinonen
EAST LONGMEADOW — In every generation, there is one event that defines people, state Sen. Jake Oliveira said at a candlelight vigil at the East Longmeadow fire station on Sept. 11.
For millennials, those who came of age in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, it was the moment a plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City in 2001, followed by the collapse of the South Tower and the crash of another plane near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
That day is “forever etched in our memories,” the Ludlow Democrat said, adding that it made people of his generation forever. State Rep. Brian Ashe (D-Longmeadow) said, “You remember where you were” when you heard the news and saw the footage being broadcast from New York and Pennsylvania.
Reflecting on how much time has passed since the attack, state Rep. Angelo Puppolo (D-Springfield) noted that his youngest daughter was not yet born that day 24 years ago, but now lives near the memorial marking the place where the towers once stood. He remembered the first responders’ dedication and the way they stayed at the site working to find more people, even when their superiors officers told them to leave.
Fire Chief Christopher Beecher said the country made a “solemn promise to never forget” the events of 9/11 and the 343 firefighters and “countless first responders” who never returned home to their families so that others could. “We honor the families who bore the greatest sacrifice,” he said.
Ashe said he thinks about what it would have been like for his family had he been one of the mothers, fathers, sons or daughters who did not survive that day. He also recalled the way it took a tragedy of such magnitude to bring the country together. Ashe likened the United States to a “dysfunctional family,” in which squabbling is put aside when threatened by an outside force. “We’re all American,” he said.
Town Councilor Jim Leydon said that “honoring the bravery of the first responders” is a “solemn reminder,” not just of what was lost, but also of the “strength and unity” displayed in the days and months that followed 9/11. Town Manager Tom Christensen said he will “always remember … those who answered the call and those who are still willing.”
On a table next to the podium sat a gleaming bell. Firefighter Ed McCandlish struck a series of five bells, four times — the final bell symbolizing the end of a firefighter’s watch and their final return home. While people bowed their heads in silent reverence, the sound of bagpipes echoed off the walls of the fire station as East Longmeadow High School student Brenden Schmidt stood in the darkness, playing “Amazing Grace.”
