‘We will always remember.’ Rockland County mourns victims of 9/11 at Haverstraw Bay County Park

More than 200 people showed up for the service to honor 83 people with ties to Rockland County who died that day.

News 12 Staff

Sep 11, 2022, 11:23 AM

Updated 752 days ago

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Rockland County hosted a 9/11 memorial ceremony at Haverstraw Bay County Park to honor those who died in the attacks.
More than 200 people showed up for the service to honor 83 people with ties to Rockland County who died that day.
Many of their families were there to read the names of their loved ones and a bell rang for each of them.
Anne Pettus shared a reading for her daughter, Laura Longing, who was a new mother at the time of the attack.
"My daughter was 35 years old when she was taken,” says Pettus. “She had just gone back to work, and left a 3-month-old and 19-month-old baby."
Longing was an assistant vice president with a company based on the 96th floor of the World Trade Center.
"We never really got anything back of her. We never really had closure,” says Pettus. “But, you know, we have to go on. We have to remember, and we always will remember."
Longing is memorialized on a memorial wall right near where American Airlines Flight 93 was flying south near the Hudson River before hitting the North Tower.
Pettus says 21 years later these events do not get any easier, but she still goes to share her daughter’s story because she is a part of history.
Longing’s children are now in college and will be starting their careers soon.
County Executive Ed Day was also at the ceremony. He encouraged anyone who was touched by 9/11 to “live a meaningful life in honor of those we lost that day.”