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9.22.2001 00:03
Airline workers say good-bye to one of their own
• About 200 people gather in T.F. Green Airport for a service for Renee Newell, a customer-service agent who was killed aboard one of the hijacked flights.
BY MARK ARSENAULT
Journal Staff Writer
WARWICK
-- There were no planes flying and no customers to serve last week after the terrorist attack, but Viola Mollo, an American Airlines employee at T.F. Green Airport, wanted to be at work.
She wanted to be with the people who knew Renee Newell, a coworker, who died on American Flight 11, hijacked from Boston and crashed into the World Trade Center.
"They said there was no need for us to come in," Mollo said yesterday. "But you felt compelled to come in and be with the people you work with."
The people who worked with Renee Newell gathered again yesterday at the airport, between the escalators in the heart of the terminal, for a memorial service. They were joined by some 200 others -- people from other airlines, airport officials, Mayor Scott Avedisian and Renee Newell's family and friends, including her mother, Lillian DiMartino Tetreault, and Renee's husband, Paul.
They gathered yesterday around a table laden with red, white and blue flowers and a photograph of Renee Newell, a customer-service agent. She was smiling in the picture, with the American Airlines logo behind her. Renee Tetreault Newell, of Glengrove Avenue, in Cranston, was 37 years old. Her son, Matthew, is 8.
The mourners clutched carnations, dabbed their eyes and sang "Amazing Grace," and four stanzas of "America the Beautiful."
The Rev. Gary Lemery praised the American Airlines staff at T.F. Green for "their courage, their strength and their faith."
He urged those in attendance to "remember Renee and remember all those who were murdered" in the terrorist attacks Sept. 11. "Those who sought to divide us must be amazed at how united we are," he said.
Employees for American, with help from airport staff, organized yesterday's memorial.
After the service, Christine Hurlbut, a flight attendant for American, blinked away tears and said she appreciated the opportunity to mourn with the group.
"I think healing begins with expressing feelings and sharing feelings," she said.
And she appreciated that the memorial was held at the airport, she said. So many people rush through the airport with hardly time to "acknowledge that there are real people doing their jobs here," she said.
Renee's mother recalled how she lost her mother in the infamous 1944 Hartford circus fire, and a sister in a car crash. And now her daughter in a terrorist attack. She keeps Renee's photograph taped to her pocketbook.
"It's hard, but we're learning to get through it," she said.
The Renee Tetreault Newell Memorial Fund will be divided between the Rhode Island Alzheimer's Association and a scholarship fund for children from St. Rocco's School, where Matthew is a fourth grader. Donations may be made at Citizens Bank, or sent to P.O. Box 3764, Cranston, RI 02910.
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