Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/313248
ByJonathanLemire The Associated Press NEW YORK Tears in her eyes, firefighter widow Maureen Fanning emerged Thursday from the new Sept. 11 museum deep be- neath ground zero, unable to bring herself to look at all of it. "I just think it would be a little too overwhelming to- day," she said, unsure when she would return. "It's a lot to digest, to absorb. Not any- time soon." Victims' friends and rel- atives, rescue workers and survivors of the terrorist attack descended into the subterranean space and re- visited the tragedy as the National Sept. 11 Memorial Museum was dedicated by President Barack Obama as a symbol that says of Amer- ica: "Nothing can ever break us." The museum's artifacts range from the monumen- tal, like two of the huge fork- shaped columns from the World Trade Center's fa- cade, to the intimate: a wed- ding ring, a victim's voice mail message. Some relatives found the exhibits both upsetting and inspiring. Patricia Smith's visit came down to one small object: the New York Po- lice Department shield her mother, Moira, was wearing 12½ years ago when she died helping to evacuate the twin towers. Patricia, 14, said she left feeling a new level of con- nection to her mother. Still, "seeing that, reading the story that goes along with it, even if I already know it, is really upsetting," she said. David Greenberg, who lost a dozen colleagues who met for breakfast at the trade center's Windows on the World restaurant on Sept. 11, called the museum "breath- taking, awe-inspiring and emotional." "You have your moments when there can be solitude, moments when there can be happiness, and a mixture of emotions through the en- tire museum," said Green- berg, who worked at an of- fice nearby. The museum opens to the public Wednesday, but many of those who were affected most directly by 9/11 could start exploring it Thursday. Victims' relatives also paid their first visits to a repository at the museum that contains unidentified remains from the disaster. Monika Iken never re- ceived her husband's body. "But he's here. I know he's here," Iken, a museum board member, said after leaving the repository. Many in the audience wiped away tears dur- ing the dedication cere- mony, which revisited both the horror and the hero- ism of Sept. 11, 2001, the day 19 al-Qaida hijackers crashed four airliners into the trade center, the Penta- gon and a field in Pennsyl- vania. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in an attack that plunged the U.S. into a de- cade of war in Afghanistan against al-Qaida's Taliban protectors. After viewing some of the exhibits, including a man- gled fire truck and a me- morial wall with photos of victims, Obama retold the story of Welles Crowther, a 24-year-old World Trade Center worker who became known as "the man in the red bandanna" after he led oth- ers to safety from one of the towers. He died in the tow- er's collapse. The president said the museum pays tribute to "the true spirit of 9/11 — love, compassion, sacrifice." "Like the great wall and bedrock that embrace us to- day," Obama said, referring to the way the foundation withstood the attack, "noth- ing can ever break us. Noth- ing can change who we are as Americans." One of the red bandannas Crowther made a habit of carrying is in the museum. Crowther's mother, Alison, said she hoped it would in- spire visitors to help other people. "This is the true legacy of Sept. 11," she said. Retired Fire Department Lt. Mickey Cross described being trapped for hours in the wreckage — and then joining the recovery effort after being rescued. Kayla Bergeron remem- bered taking her final steps to safety, after 68 flights, on the battered staircase that now sits in the museum. "To- day, when I think about those stairs, what they represent to me is resiliency," she said. MEMORIAL Sept. 11 museum opens to relatives and survivors RICHARDDREW,POOL—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Former New York Gov. George Pataki speaks as photos of victims are projected during the dedication ceremony in Foundation Hall of the National September 11Memorial Museum in New York on Thursday. FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 3 B