NEW YORK (AP) — Wanda Ortiz understands why fewer people turned out at memorial services honoring the victims of 9/11 on the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

But for her, the ceremonies are comforting. Her twin daughters, Amanda and Emily, were 5 months old when their father, Emilio Ortiz, was killed in the north tower of the World Trade Center,. At Tuesday's ground zero service in New York, Amanda did the reading for the family.

Ortiz said she knows the ceremonies have less impact on people who did not lose someone in the tragedy, but she doesn't resent that.