About a month ago, the country-hicks from the ‘high’ desert journeyed to NYC to attend the wedding of our niece.  Below — Betty to left, and Eric Nathan (father of the bride) looking dapper and apparently rehearsing his part in The Walk of The Bride to The Altar.

Joy St. John, another niece, schmoozing with Betty.  Over B’s shoulder, in the blue dress is someone whose name might have been Care-Oil Keying — whose grandson is/was the Groom.

Yeah, yeah … nice Jewish wedding, very festive, most people dressed-up … Sarah (nee Nathan, now:) Kondor looking radiant after the ceremony.

The bride’s family poses — Eli (brother), Dad (Eric), Ann Luria (mom — Betty’s sister), Bride, Groom, and other sister Molly.  Next pixure is Joy and Eli, relieved that the official stuff is over and the party can begin.

I had been to Jewish weddings (OURS was!) and sometimes the Hora was danced, but I have led a sheltered life in that I had never personally witnessed the lifting of the Bride & Groom in chairs — sorry, this is the only pixure I was able to get!

The day before the wedding, Deirdre MacGuire, Betty’s childhood-&-school chum, took us to “Ground Zero” and we wandered amongst the memorials, spots of/for reflection, and — yes, outlets of commerce clustered about that somber-yet-imbued-with-a-sense-of-hope neighborhood.  The almost-palpable emanation of the eventual and inevitable dominance of all that is decent and good — over that which is not.

I did not know that the World Trade Center had been rebuilt — the two photos, above.

In the days and weeks following 9/11, Deirdre and friends would bring food and supplies to St. Paul’s Chapel — which was adjacent to the Twin Towers and (if I heard right) only had one window shatter during the disaster.  I probably was informed and remembered for a short while what the picture, below is of.  Still, I would presume that this area is usually a busy, bustling place — with visitors from all over the world.

There are two … not fountains, but square features … pools … locations where the two buildings were are now monuments, nay, memorials — with water flowing over all four sides into the deeper pools.  Yes, the exact “footprint” of each tower remains — not to be disparaging of religion and the saints and such, but akin to the tombs commemorating what (and who) once was —

Betty and Deirdre consider some of the names engraved around each pool.  A lot of thought and planning and work went into the memorial and surrounding areas.  And some aspects not originally intended, such as —

The Survivor Tree.  There is a lot of symbolism here — and not only this single tree but several more planted nearby are representative of aspects of That Day.  Below, B & D wander to the nearby waterfront.

And we slowly wander back home amongst the forest, as it were, of towers.