Johnathan Fairhurst and Chloe Young, both born after 2001, are part of a new generation keeping the memory of Sept. 11 alive.
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Though neither witnessed the 2001 terror attacks, both grew up hearing firsthand accounts from parents who survived the day near the World Trade Center.
Fairhurst’s father was working in an office across the street from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, while Young’s mother worked at a nearby Gap store.
Along with family accounts, both Fairhurst and Young learned about the attacks through annual discussions in school classrooms.
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Fairhurst, the son of a World Trade Center survivor, recalled how his father’s morning began on the day of the attacks.
“He was just doing some regular office stuff before he head out, and then he heard the first shake from the first plane hitting the tower. Had no idea what was happening, looked out, found out it was real,” Fairhurst said.
He added that his father witnessed traumatic scenes during his escape.
“There was just a severed hand on the ground next to him ... that’s an image he can never get out of his head these days,” Fairhurst said.
Chloe Young learned about the attacks from her mother, who watched the Twin Towers fall from her job at the Gap store across the street.
Her mother had to walk all the way home through smoke because public transit trains were shut down.
In addition to family accounts, classroom education helped convey the historical impact of the attacks to students born after 2001.
Fairhurst noted that local schools dedicated time every year to reflect on the tragedy.
“Every year, especially in our history classes, but in every class, we would take a day to talk about it and talk about how it affected our city,” Fairhurst said.
Both Fairhurst and Young have visited the Sept. 11 Memorial in Manhattan, which features reflective pools displaying the names of nearly 3,000 people who died in the attacks.
Young described the experience of viewing the monument.
“Just walking by and reading all the names of these people who you don’t know, but it’s so sad and seeing all like, you’d see flowers like tucked into their names left by their loved ones,” Young said.
Fairhurst explained that visiting the site reinforced the scale of the loss and his personal connection to it.
“It makes me realize the reality of more than 3,000 people losing their lives and also how my father could have been one of those people,” he said.
As time moves forward, both young adults continue to find personal ways to honor those who died and reflect on their parents’ experiences.
“I could never come close to understand what it was like to be there that day or to have lost people, but it’s, I think so important to visit those places and to remember the stories of all those people who died that day,” Young said.
Fairhurst also maintains personal rituals on the anniversary.
“The thing I’ll definitely always do is call my dad,” Fairhurst said, adding, “and then yeah similarly I’ll just I kind of take time to remember that I’ll usually pray about it in some way.”
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