ANDOVER — An unexpected sight circled high above the spot where wreaths were laid to remember the four Andover residents who lost their lives 25 years ago on Friday morning.
It was a moment when a bald eagle appeared just after 9 a.m. as the town concluded in front of Town Offices its 25th anniversary remembrance ceremony of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
A sign or coincidence, the bird was flying at what would have been the time that the second plane hit the south tower of the World Trade Center.
People gathered for the 9/11 ceremony, which remembered the nearly 3,000 lives lost, including four of its own, honored the first responders and recognized the unity that came from the tragic events.
“Twenty-five years have passed since a beautiful September morning became one of the darkest days in our nation’s history,” Andover Director of Veterans Services Mark Comeiro told the crowd. “We gather not to reopen the wounds of that day, but to remember.”
The names of the four who were killed during the attacks are reminders of the effect “right in our town,” Andover fire Chief Kyle Murphy said.
Wreaths were laid in the memory of Andover residents Betty Ong, Millie Naiman, Christopher Morrison, and Leonard “Lenny” Taylor.
Ong, 45, was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane which hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. Ong was the first person on Sept. 11 to alert those on the ground that the airplane had been hijacked.
Naiman, 71, was a passenger on Flight 11 who was traveling to visit family in California.
Morrison, 34, was attending a conference at the World Trade Center on the 107th floor of the north tower when it was hit.
Taylor, 44, was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77, taking a routine business trip to Los Angeles, when the plane crashed into the Pentagon. The Andover High School graduate captained the hockey team.
The wreaths symbolized “a community’s promise to remember,” Comeiro said.
Sept. 11 is told through the accounts of the firefighters who climbed the tower stairs to rescue people, the police who refused to leave and the rescue workers who searched through the rubble. It’s the stories of the Flight 93 passengers who fought back, strangers carrying strangers and how communities came together in moments that united the country, Comeiro said.
Police Chief Patrick Keefe also encouraged sharing those stories to teach the next generation about the courage of people and their selfless acts that day.
“For those who lived through September 11, remembrance is personal,” Comeiro said.
“For those who did not, remembrance must be taught. We have a responsibility to tell them what happened. But we should also tell them what happened afterward.”