Together in Memory: Honoring September 11th

Every year, September 11th arrives quietly on the calendar, and yet it never feels quiet when it comes. Even here in Long Beach—thousands of miles from where the towers once stood—the weight of that day lingers. It’s not just a piece of history we read about in textbooks or see in old news clips; it’s something we carry in our collective memory and often in our hearts as mothers.

For many of us, the details of that morning are etched forever: where we were, who we were with, the way the world seemed to shift in an instant. Some of us were young adults, still figuring out our place in the world. Some were already moms, with little ones who didn’t yet understand why the adults around them were crying in front of the television. And some of us were still children ourselves, old enough to sense that something was wrong, but too young to grasp the enormity of what was happening.

What stands out most now, twenty-four years later, is not only the loss but also the way people came together….

Communities leaned on each other. Strangers held hands. Families huddled close. And even here in Long Beach, far from the rubble and smoke, we gathered—at churches, schools, and local parks—to mourn and to find strength.

As moms, we hold onto those lessons, maybe even more tightly now. When we talk to our kids about September 11th, we can’t always explain the hate or the violence, but we can show them what came after: the helpers, the firefighters who ran toward danger, the neighbors who donated blood, the communities who refused to let fear divide them. We can remind them that out of something so dark, people chose to create light.

Here in Long Beach, we know something about resilience. We’ve faced our share of challenges—economic downturns, a pandemic, natural disasters—and yet, our community always shows up. We bring meals, we open our homes, we walk the beach at sunset together to find a little peace. Maybe that’s the quiet lesson of September 11th for us now: that no matter what happens in the world, we are stronger when we come together, when we care for one another the way only a community—and a mother—can.

This morning, the city was waking up in its usual way: dogs pulling their owners down the path at Shoreline, runners pacing themselves by the Queen Mary, parents hustling kids off to school. Ordinary moments, simple moments, and on September 11th, it was exactly that sense of “ordinary” that was shattered.

So today, we remember. We pause, not only for the lives lost in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, but also for the countless families who still feel those losses deeply. And we honor them the best way we know how: by loving our people a little harder, by teaching our kids compassion, by continuing to build a Long Beach that is kind, strong, and connected.

Because in the end, that’s what endures.