A hunk of granite, a shard of glass, a boy rising from rubble
NORTH PROVIDENCE -- Ground Zero was still smoldering.
Rescuers were finding corpses. Bits of paper twisted and whirled in the breeze and smoke wafted from the rubble.
On the invitation of some New York City firefighters, Joseph Colannino, a North Providence resident and retired Providence firefighter, was at the bustling site almost two months after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Suddenly, everything stopped. Rescuers lined up on either side of a pathway leading through the debris to a flag-draped stretcher.
Everyone, including Colannino, saluted as the remains of a firefighter were carried past them.
Colannino, 61 at the time, was overwhelmed by emotion and a sense of history.
"I knew I had to take something back from the site," he recalls. "I bent down and picked up these two pieces."
As he pocketed two tiny pieces of debris on Nov. 9, 2001, Colannino had no idea what he would do with them. It was a while before that was clear.
BY LAST THURSDAY, Colannino's debris and his recollection of Ground Zero had deeply influenced the creation of North Providence's monument to those who died on Sept. 11.
A mayor, a high school artist, a seasoned sculptor and a project manager also made substantial contributions, in an unusual creative partnership, bound by a collective will to build something memorable.
Their achievement was shrouded in black as dozens of people gathered at Evans Field on Smith Street.
The high school choir and a color guard flanked it.
A small portrait of North Smithfield's Amy Jarret -- a 28-year-old flight attendant who died aboard one of the hijacked planes -- rested on the base of the monument.
Her mother, Marilyn Trudeau, of Chepachet, sat in a chair nearby. Next to her sat another honored guest, Lillian Tetreault, the mother of Renee Tetreault Newell, a 37-year-old Warwick woman who also died on one of the planes.
Trudeau had read about the monument in that morning's paper. She thought it was unusual and moving. She wanted to see it.
After a prayer, Mayor A. Ralph Mollis stepped up to a podium.
He talked about the different people who had worked over the past year to build the tribute.
He described the responsibility of keeping alive the memory of Sept. 11.
"We all remember where we were that day," Mollis said.
He explained how he had worked with high school educators to give students a special challenge: come up with a winning design for the memorial.
A senior, Ashley MacLure, won that contest. Mollis had made some suggestions.
He thought the monument should include a representation of a police officer and a firefighter.
North Smithfield sculptor Anthony Longo had a few of his own ideas.
Then Joseph Colannino made his contribution.
"Today we're going to see the final result of that vision and the handiwork that took place over those months," Mollis said.
MacLure spoke next.
"I'm incredibly humbled by the sculpture's outcome," said MacLure, now a student at the Rhode Island School of Design. "I hope everyone likes it. Thanks for coming."
A PEACH GLOW began breaking through the overcast sky as Mollis asked someone to remove the shroud.
The crowd saw the bronze figure of a boy with a large eagle perched on his back. His expression was hopeful. The child stood between two towers of polished granite, each more than 4-feet tall.
The words of President George W. Bush are inscribed on the tower to the left:
On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country/and in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment./Our nation, this generation, will lift the dark threat of violence from our people and our future./We will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail.
The following passages were inscribed on the tower to the right:
"At the center of a great city on a peaceful morning." Dedicated to the heroes and victims of September 11, 2001. May they serve as amodel for humanities eternal quest for freedom.
On the third slab of granite -- the largest one -- which provides a backdrop to the whole scene, Longo had etched images of a firefighter and a police officer.
Longo doesn't like to etch or sculpt anything based on a picture. He believes pictures aren't as accurate as the real thing. So he used models.
The manager of the project, Frank Bursie, said he asked Police Chief Col. Ernest Spaziano and Fire Chief Steven Catanzaro to model for the pictures.
Spaziano declined, he said. At the time, Bursie was under pressure to finish the project before winter. Bursie said he had modeled for Longo's etching of the police officer.
An American flag was etched into the granite.
The monument has one other prominent feature:
The boy is standing on his tiptoes as if he and the towers on either side are rising from the rubble. Several stones are scattered about his feet.
Encased in front of the boy are the mementos that Colannino brought home from Ground Zero: a hunk of granite about the size of a golf ball and an even smaller shard of plate glass.
COLANNINO HAD a chance to speak. He told the crowd how the keepsakes from 9/11 seemed out of place on a shelf in his house off Douglas Avenue.
"I know of no other memorial that has replicas of the site other than the site itself," he said.
The mother of Amy Jarret, the 28-year-old flight attendant, was touched.
"It's a beautiful tribute to the victims," said Marilyn Trudeau. "I'm so pleased and honored that they've been remembered."
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