President Obama hugs Diane Wall, from Rumson, NJ, as her daughters and a family friend watch. Both families lost fathers on 9/11.
Under sunny skies and the unfinished bulk of the first tower to rise at Ground Zero, Obama laid a wreath on the plaza of the emerging 9/11 Memorial on the site of the World Trade Center. In a solemn, silent ceremony, he placed flowers in front of a tree that survived the towers' collapse and hugged and greeted family members, police officers and firefighters.He gave a fist bump to Christopher Cannizzaro, 10, who was an infant when his firefighter father, Brian, was killed. In return, Christopher gave the president a prayer card for his dad.
His mother, Jackie Cannizzaro-Hawkins, said she told the president, "Thank you. Thank you for seeing it through." Obama's visit to the WTC site "means the world to me. It was appropriate. He never forgot."
Obama hugged Payton Wall, 14, and her friend Madison Robertson, 14. Both girls from Rumson, N.J., lost their dads on 9/11 and had written letters to the president several months ago.
They also had written to teen idol Justin Bieber. "I just wanted to share my story," Payton said.
"He just said how proud of us he is," Madison said.
En route to the ceremony, the president ate lunch — including eggplant parmigiana — at a firehouse, Engine 54, which on 9/11 lost all 15 members on duty.
"When we say we will never forget, we mean what we say," Obama told the firefighters.
He visited a Manhattan police station, where he signed the log book. "I am here basically to shake your hand and say how proud I am of all of you," Obama told them.
The city seemed to return the sentiment as crowds lined streets to cheer. It was Obama's first visit to Ground Zero since he became president.
Dorothy Francis, who worked in the neighborhood when the attack occurred, said she turned out "to do honor to the families. And it's a compliment on the bin Laden thing. … It's a relief to know that he's gone. It's a solemn day, really, just to know what was accomplished."
Chuck Alf, 41, visiting from Buffalo, was at the site for the first time since he went to dinner at Windows on the World, atop the north tower, in 2000. "There's a sense of pride there, to see your leader," he said. The mood on the street during the ceremony, even though no one could see the wreath laying, was solemn, he said. "For as many people as were on that street corner, it was amazingly quiet." He shared the sentiment, even though he's glad bin Laden has been killed. "I have no interest in hooting and hollering," he said. "There's a very solemn sense of some closure."
Obama spent an hour with about 60 relatives of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the attacks. They gathered at the 9/11 Memorial Preview Center, just outside the Trade Center site.
"It was like the bride at her wedding: He went to every table," said Jefferson Crowther, whose son Welles died after helping get injured Trade Center workers to safety. "He hugged the ladies, he shook the hands of the gentlemen."
Some family members had been upset not to have been included in the invitation-only event, so Mary and Frank Fetchet, founders of Voices of September 11 took letters to Obama that family members who were not invited posted on the group's Facebook page.
The message from Alexandra Luckett, who lost her brother in the collapse of the north tower, was heartfelt: "Please thank President Obama from everyone in Ted Luckett's family for finally bringing us some justice!" she wrote on Facebook. "I hope this brings a little peace to this country and that the war will soon come to an end. I love the Navy SEALs! Great job. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!"
Frank Fetchet, whose son Bradley was killed, said he had been among those who met with Obama at the beginning of his presidency in 2009.
"I felt this was kind of a bookend to that,"Fetchet said. With the death of bin Laden, "this phase of our journey from 9/11 is completed. ? There was a real pride in the room that this was done, and relief and thanks for the hard work of our military."
Jim Riches, a retired deputy chief with the city fire department and father of Jimmy Riches, a firefighter who was killed in the collapse of the north tower, was among those scheduled to meet with Obama. He recalled that at a meeting in 2009, Obama told the 9/11 families that he was determined to get bin Laden.
"He did a great job,and he deserves credit for it. He had the conviction to do it," Riches said Wednesday evening.
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