A Decade Later, Park Slope Remembers Victims of 9/11

Shortly before noon on Sunday, residents of Park Slope gathered outside the main doors of on Ninth Street to commemorate the decade anniversary of September 11, 2001.

The line to enter spanned the entire block, between Fourth and Fifth Avenues. The event, which is part of a nationwide campaign to commemorate 9/11 casualties, drew families and veterans, mostly members of the nearby .

The 9/11 memorial wall, which was on display near the funeral home entrance, listed the names of the men, women and children who lost their lives during the September 11 attacks.

The ceremony, which was led by Father Jesus Cuadros of St. Thomas Aquinas Church, on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street, commenced with a serenade of bagpipes, as neighbors and relatives greeted each other with warm embraces. After a brief call to remember those who had fallen, Father Cuadros blessed the crowd.

“I worked in Two World Trade Center for years, since I was in high school," Lisette Ortiz from the congregation says of her time before the tragedy struck. "I know quite a few people who were there.”

Today, she remembers the tenth year anniversary with her family. “I grew up here," says Ortiz. "My mother has taken me to this church my whole life.”

As the bagpipes broke into a rendition of “Amazing Grace,” crowds filed into the two entrances of St. Thomas Aquinas Church, where Sunday mass was held in both Spanish and English for the predominately bilingual community.

The vaulted hall was elaborately decorated with American flags. The pews were full. People continued to trickle into church as hymns were sung and incense hung thickly in the air. In spite of the solemn occasion, neighbors and friends greeted each other with smiles as they honored the memory of those who passed.

A man by the name of Fernando Leal stood outside the church entrance with rows of colorful bouquets and portraits of Christ and the Virgin Mary for passerby. Helping was Rina Sauce. Since morning, she had been outside the church selling flower arrangements.

“I will pray today, at home,” says Sauce, as she packed up the white delivery van with leftover bouquets soon to be sold on Fifth Avenue to other church-goers, neighbors and mourners alike.

Beside her stood Marcos Degrante, age 10. “She has been selling flowers for 9/11 for most of the ten years since it happened,” Degrante of PS 14 in Queens says of Sauce. Along for the day was his four-year-old sister, Vianeth.