A tradition commemorating the anniversary of 9/11 passed down to a new generation

NEW YORK — A poignant phrase resonates as families of the victims of September 11 gather each year to pay tribute to the loved ones they lost in the terrorist attacks.

“I never had the chance to meet you.”

It’s the sound of generational change at Ground Zero, where families read the names of the victims on each anniversary of the attacks. Nearly 3,000 people were killed when al-Qaeda hijackers crashed four airliners into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a field in southwestern Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001.

Some names are read by children or young adults born after the strikes. Last year, 28 young people were read out of more than 140. Young people are expected again on Wednesday for the ceremony.

Some are the children of victims whose partners were pregnant. Most of the young readers are the nieces, nephews or grandchildren of the victims. They have inherited stories, photos and a sense of solemn responsibility.

Being a “9/11 family” resonates across generations, and commemorating and understanding the September 11 attacks will one day return to a world that has no direct memory of them.

At 9/11 memorials, military personnel and Pentagon officials read the names of the 184 people killed at the scene. At the Flight 93 National Memorial, relatives and friends of the victims read the list of the 40 passengers and crew who lost their lives at the rural site near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The hours-long ceremony at the September 11 Memorial in New York is devoted almost exclusively to the names of the 2,977 victims of the three sites, as well as the six people killed in the 1993 World Trade Center attack. All the names are read by volunteer relatives and chosen by drawing lots.

“I often think about how, if you were still here, you’d be one of my best friends, watching college with me, getting me out of trouble with mom and dad, hanging out at the Jersey Shore,” Capri Yarosz said last year of her slain uncle, New York firefighter Christopher Michael Mozzillo.

“It means a lot to me to be able to kind of keep my uncle’s name alive and keep everybody’s name alive, so that more future generations will know,” she said by phone from her family’s home in central New Jersey. “I’m happy to be able to pass on the importance of what happened.”

Today, most of the children of 9/11 victims, like Melissa Tarasiewicz, who had just graduated from high school when her father died, are long grown. But about 100 were born after one of their parents was killed in the attacks and are now young adults.

At the event, one young reader after another paid tribute to the aunts, uncles, great-uncles, grandfathers and grandmothers the children missed throughout their lives.

“All my life, my father told me that I reminded him of you.”

“I would like you to take me fishing.”

“I wish I had more of you than just a picture in a frame.”

“Even though I never met you, I will never forget you.”