14 May 2011

Sean Rooney's place on the National 9/11 Memorial

The National 9/11 Memorial and Museum recently unveiled its digital guide to the memorial. Those who lost a loved one can see where the name will be placed on the completed bronze plaques that will surround the sunken fountains at the center of the memorial. Beverly Eckert devoted a great deal of effort, along with others in the 9/11 community, to ensuring the memorial would properly preserve the place where so many perished on that day in September 2001.

The names of those who died are grouped according to their location at the time of the attacks. (Names of the victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing also will appear on the plaques.) The name of Beverly's husband, Sean Paul Rooney, will be on plaque S-57, right on the corner of the South Memorial Pool. His name is grouped with colleagues at Aon Corporation.

The memorial and museum is scheduled to open in time for the tenth anniversary of the attacks. Before the public is allowed in, family and friends will be able to trace the letters that spell out the names of those they lost. They will be able to leave flowers, photos, notes, personal mementos. The will be allowed to return to the last place on this sweet earth where thousands of Sean Rooneys were taken way.

And then the site will open to the world. It will be a place for all to touch names, to hear the sound of water falling into deep square footprints where the tall towers once stood. It will be a place to reflect, to remember.

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