NYC-WTC_000230621

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

NEVI/ VOHK MAS AZINE, OCTOBER 1. 2001 B we do funerals wilhoui hodic.s—lliat's the B first question they ask,” .says Father Ron E Rozniak of Our Lady of Mount Carmel K Church in Ridgewood, Ne’w Jersey, whose .J YU \ ■ 1 ” B parish has lost ten members, all without a B trace. "And we do, we always have, not just for this. Then they want to know; What about a grave? A tombstone? A place to Uj go to mourn? Some people are planning to get a plot with a relative so there’ll be a ■! place for them to go. We’ve said to them EQ that if an identifiable body part is uncov- ered later on, we can do another funeral liturgy of a graveside service. Something.” Mass death has the curious effect of Ipy both magnifying a person’s importance HP and trivializing it. These funerals and p memorials, traditionally intimate rituals, have become epic events, as public as the deaths of the victims themselves. Last Tuesday, 1,300 people descended on the Mfct. J Church of the Resurrection in Larchmont Br for the memorial of Frank McGuinn, a r' managing director Cantor Fitzgerald; - to administer nion. On Wednesday, 1,700 people crammed into St. Ignatius of Loyola on Flag bearer; Tiffany Massagit at the funeral of Port Authority police offiter Dominick Pezzulo, Park Avenue for Joseph and Daniel Shea, September 19. brothers who worked at Cantor Fitzger- aid; the family needed six condolence 11, even if they were not directly affected. now that cars had been banned from low­ books. Ed Fox, director of John J, Fox Funeral er Manhattan. They sped right by a On Thursday, Christine Bennett had a Home in Larchmont—his town lost at woman and her son, both wearing pic- funeral for her fiance, Danny Rosetti, who least three—wonders whether these giant tures of a man pinned to their T-shirts. They were numbly making their way north toward the Armory, clutching den­ tal records and more photos. “EVERYWHERE SEE ANOTHER fSSKllWlOST Other, more subtle schisms are devel­ oping, too: between those who lost dear friends and those who lost acquaintances;

SOMEONE. IT’S VERY OPPRESSIVE.” and those who lost no one at all.' In fact, grieving has a whole new geog- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- ------- raphy. People who live downtown are con- perished while installing office furniture ceremonies tend to drovm out the needs vinced they’re living in a different city for AON on the 105th floor of Tower Two. of the people closest to the deceased, from that of people who live uptown, for She felt like half the town of Bloomfield, Some families, he says, took to putting up instance, because so many of them saw New Jersey, showed up. “Our escort— signs on their front doors last week—firm the whole thing~the planes, the collaps- there had to be at least ten police cars out but polite notes thanking their neighbors es, the men and women jumping head­ in front with their sirens going,” she says, for stopping by but further explaining: first—and they saw it from their windows “A councilwoman was there, a person “We’re not receiving people today.” ortheir streets or their roof5,unmediated from the United Way was there, four peo- “The families appreciate all the sup- by television. South of 14th Street, the re- ple from the Red Cross ’were there, one port,” says Fox. “But they’ve had to limit minders are also everywhere. The side- irom Oklahoma. Honestly, there 'were so contact with people. So much support can walks are loaded with more debris; people many they all just started blending to- become counterproductive.” seem to have fewer qualms about plaster- gether. The to'wn even made up a resolu- ing apartment buildings with fliers of the tion and framed it and presented it to us. at the moment, we seem very much a missing—on NYU dorms, on the walls of It’s long. I haven't read it. But it’s signed united city. But invisibly, inevitably, we St Vincent's, on great walls of cardboard by the mayor and they’re forwarding it to are subdividing, and we will be doing in Union Square. My neighbor has one of our senators and the governor and the more of it in the coming months. The ob- those fliers taped to her door. It’s a picture state legislators and the New Jersey mu- vious schism will be between those who've of her fiance. nicipalities." lost someone and those who haven’t. As But propinquity has also given some These massive outpourings are, of early as 24 hours after the attack, I could . people an opening for self-righteousness. course, stunning tributes to the dead. But see the city mutely splitting in this way. A. Exiting the subway recently, a friend of they are also forums for collective griev- couple of college kids came whizzing mine heard one woman greet another ing; they have become a means for people down the center ofThirdAvenue on their with the following: “I'm so glad to see to work through the events of September skateboards, reveling in their freedom someone from downtown," She then

CITY_21MC100_011830176

NYC-WTC_000230622