A new memorial has been built in
Fairfield to honor the victims of 9/11 ahead of the milestone anniversary.
Oak Lawn Cemetery & Arboretum spans 100 sprawling acres and is a place
people have come to mourn and remember loved ones for more than 150 years. Now,
they can visit Oak Lawn to honor all those who died on Sept. 11, 2001.
The new memorial
has two 9-foot granite towers on top of a
pentagon-shaped granite base. A rock engraved with the words "let's
roll" pays tribute to the heroic final moments of Flight 93.
Along the walkway, the trees have a
direct connection to ground zero.
"One of our board members visited the 9/11 site in New York City, gathered the acorns, took them back to
his home nursery and then raised the trees. So these are the children of the
trees at the 9/11 memorial," says Bronson Hawley, of Oak Lawn Cemetery and Arboretum.
It's a place to
quietly reflect.
"What I think
about is the day that I was teaching in Westport and we could see the smoke
from the Twin Towers across Long Island
Sound," says Patti Hiller.
Everything was
meticulously designed by longtime groundskeeper Dean Powers.
"A
very, very dedicated hardworking groundskeeper and he worked here literally
seven days a week. He saw this site and he said, 'boy this is great and I’d
like to do something to memorialize the victims,'" says Hawley.
Powers never got
to see his concept come to be be. He died from cancer in June of last year at
the age of 69.
"Dean started designing maybe three years ago, literally
worked on those designs up until the day he died. It was just amazing,"
says Hawley.
The cost of the
memorial is being covered by Powers' estate.
"He wanted to
pay for it himself and that’s another very great gesture on his part,"
says Hawley. "It really is a magnificent representation. He would be very,
very proud of it."
Oak Lawn will hold
an official dedication ceremony next week. Jed Glick, the brother of one of
the heroes who rushed the cockpit on Flight 93,
will be part of it.