PEABODY — The last photo ever taken of American Airlines Flight 11 passenger and Peabody resident Donald DiTullio adorned the sweater worn by his mother, Marjorie DiTullio, on Friday morning.
Family members had snapped the photo at Marjorie’s 80th birthday celebration in 2001. On Friday, they joined her in attending the city’s Sept. 11 remembrance ceremony at the Peabody Public Safety Memorial on Perkins street, exactly 25 years after the attack took her son’s life.
“Anyone who says they can forget, they can’t,” said Marjorie, now 105 years old. “That day never should have happened.”
DiTullio, 49, and his partner Natalie “Janis” Lasden, 46, and also living in Peabody, were killed when their plane was hijacked by terrorists and flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. A memorial to the couple remains cared for by Lasden’s sister on Grandview Avenue in Peabody.
Christine Barbuto, 32, was another local killed on Flight 11 that day. Though Barbuto lived in Brookline at the time, she grew up in Peabody and had graduated from Peabody Veterans Memorial High School.
In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attack, and thousands more who inhaled toxic fumes and dust at Ground Zero have died from related illnesses in the years since.
“We’ve suffered some tragic losses here in our own city. Those are painful and difficult days,” police Chief Tom Griffin said during the ceremony. “But I can’t even imagine what (police and fire) departments that lost eight or nine members, what they went through. Or those neighborhoods and boroughs around New York City who suffered tremendously at the loss of their neighbors.”
New York City lost 343 firefighters, 72 police officers and eight EMTs and paramedics in the attack. Local police and fire officials held a Last Alarm ceremony and laid wreaths in their memory at the Public Safety Memorial during Friday’s event.
“Sept. 11 reminds us why we wear this uniform,” Peabody fire Chief Jay Dowling said. “Our job is about helping people on what may be the worst day of their lives. It’s about showing up, doing our job and being there when needed. The men and women who responded that day showed us the very best of that commitment.”
The city also honored all of those who died at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in a field in Pennsylvania that morning after also being hijacked.
“Please remember those lives lost,” Mayor Ted Bettencourt said during the ceremony. “Remember the police officers, firefighters. Give a hug to your families. We must always remember this day.”s
Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com .