Victim families mark moment of Sept 11 attack

Part of a crowd of family and friends of people killed in the Sept 11 attack on the World Trade Centre pause for a moment of silence at 9:03am yesterday in New York during the World Trade Center Memorial Ceremony observing the time the second plane struck the South Tower three years ago. The ceremony marks the third anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre. PHOTO: AFP

Parents and grandparents of victims then began reading the names of the 2,749 people lost in the trade center attack a recitation that was expected to take more than two hours.

"A man who loses his wife is a widower. A woman who loses her husband is a widow," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "There is no name for a parent who loses a children, for there are no words to describe this pain."

The moment of silence was observed at 8:46 a.m., the time American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the center's north tower on Sept. 11, 2001. Similar moments were planned for 9:03, 9:59 and 10:29 a.m. the times of the second plane crash and of the collapse of each tower as the nation began a day of remembrance.

The president and first lady also presided over a moment of silence on the White House's South Lawn.

Pat Hawley, of Charlotte, N.C., said he comes to the ground zero ceremony every year to remember his older sister, Karen Sue Juday.

"It seems like it gets harder every year, because it's that much more time since I've been able to talk to my sister and be with her," said Hawley, 44.

There were roses available for family members to pick up as they came in.

Nancy Brandemarti, who has never attended the ground zero remembrance, will read a poem for her son, Nicky Brandemarti, a financial analyst who died just weeks before his 22nd birthday.