Locals, Flight 93 families united
by terrible tragedy

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. (AP) – Esther Heymann was overflowing with grief for her stepdaughter. Standing in a blustery snow, overlooking the empty field where Flight 93 had crashed a couple of years earlier, she couldn’t stop crying.

The only other person there was a local man, sitting in his warm car. Every few minutes he’d come out, asking Heymann if she was OK; mostly, he just let her grieve. Alone.

Finally, the man approached her. His wife was making soup at home. She should come and have some, get warm, wait for the snow to stop.

She did, following a man she didn’t know through streets that to him were his neighborhood.

To her, they were the roads leading to her loved one’s cemetery plot.

When the earth and sky tragically collided in these rolling fields on Sept. 11, 2001, the people who live here and the relatives of the 40 passengers and crew killed were suddenly and inextricably brought together. That bond will be sealed further Saturday when ground is broken here for a national park, a permanent memorial to the victims and a permanent reminder to the locals.

Known as Flight 93 Ambassadors, the volunteers noticed people showing up at the crash site with no idea what they were looking at. More than 130,000 people visit every year.

With a 93-foot tower containing 40 wind chimes, the $58 million memorial to be built on 2,200 acres here will guide visitors on a path to what’s known simply as the “sacred ground.” It is set to open in 2011.