Family Member Experience at Ground Zero:
By: Lynn Castrianno

My mother, sister, and I were in NYC this past weekend and we found out several things that I thought of be interest to families. You may want to pass some of this on. I'll just let you know what I found out and leave it to your discretion what to let people know and what needs to be followed up on. Because I am not from the NYC area I do not have the proper street names but please bear with my descriptions:

1) There was a crowd of people near Ground Zero by the department store Century 21. It turns out that you can see a little better from this vantage point. I approached a police officer by the barricades, explained that we were family, and asked if it would be possible to get closer. He let us and it turns out that the steel cross that was found in the rubble is there. Apparently they hold a Catholic mass there every Sunday at 10:30 and have been from the beginning for recovery workers and volunteers. Families are welcome to attend this mass, just get there by 10:15 and let the police officers know you're family and want to attend the service. We did attend this past Sunday and found it an incredibly moving experience.

2) At the conclusion of church services the priest announced that they would like to have a ceremonial procession when the last piece of debris is removed from the site. There is a plan to have the last piece be the flag and for this flag to be walked from the site and to the barge and to have all recovery workers, volunteers, construction workers, and family members walk together and watch the flag being placed on top of the debris. The current thinking is that this will be near the end of May, beginning of June.

3) We were also told that if you tell workers that you are family members they may be able to bring you on-site if you want.

4) St. Paul's chapel is open for family members as well. I wasn't aware of this and the volunteer that we spoke with said we were more than welcome. Just identify yourself as a family member and if the volunteer doesn't let you in ask that person to talk to their supervisor. Apparently they have a lot of new volunteers and they sometimes aren't aware that families are allowed to take refuge in there as well. We did go in and it was such a peaceful place. It was filled, from top to bottom, with notes and cards from around the world. We were told that when they close the chapel all of those mementos would be destroyed - I sure hope that's not the case.

5) Medical Examiner's Office - The temporary morgue they have is referred to as Memorial Park. They have 18 refrigerated trailers in this tented area that is treated with much reverence, dignity, and respect. These trailers hold all the remains recovered from the site thus far. In front of each trailer is a pot of flowers, donated by local funeral homes. Every Friday they have a non-denominational service in this tent that is attended by workers at the ME's office. They have someone who comes in and sings, says a mass, and they light 18 candles and put them in a circle (these represent the 18 trailers) and they place 1 unlit candle in the middle (this represents all those who are not yet found and may not be found). At the conclusion of the service they place a lit candle in front of each of the 18 trailers. I cannot tell you how moved I was by this description.

I know this is very quick and a lot of information and I probably left a lot of information out. Feel free to contact me for more details if you want. ~Lynn