Jennilee Miller pays respect to victim Todd Beamer at the Wall of Names at the Flight 93 National Monument before the Luminaria Ceremony on September 10, 2021 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The Luminaria Ceremony commemorates the 40 victims of Flight 93 on the 20th Anniversary of September 11th. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
SHANKSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — The victims and heroes of Flight 93 are being commemorated at a ceremony at the site where the plane crashed in a field on Sept. 11, 2001.
President Joe Biden was making an appearance, and Vice President Kamala Harris, former President George W. Bush and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf were also speaking.
Wolf said the passengers and crew of Flight 93, whose actions are believed to have led the hijackers to abandon their mission of targeting the U.S. Capitol, offered a lasting lesson of courage and hope.
“This story and this place remind us each day what it means to be an American,” said Wolf, a Democrat. “In times of strife, we Americans, we come together. We comfort each other. We protect each other and we stand up for each other. This memorial is a powerful reminder of what we have lost. But it’s also a powerful reminder of the strength of the American spirit.”
Larry Catuzzi, father of Flight 93 passenger Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, said in an interview that he talks to her every day.
“I say something that kind of reminds me of her, and I’ll talk to her. Or something good happens to me and i thank her for her being with me,” said Catuzzi, whose 38-year-old daughter was pregnant when she perished.
The family started a foundation in her name that has distributed college scholarships to more than 100 girls, funded three neonatal units and built a park in Houston memorializing the victims of Flight 93.
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MORE ON SEPT. 11:
— From 9/11’s ashes a new world took shape. It did not last
— Surviving 9/11 was ‘just the first piece of the journey’
— 9/11: As the decades pass, the act of remembering evolves
— How 9/11 changed air travel: more security, less privacy
— Two decades after 9/11, Muslim Americans still fighting bias
— 20 years later, fallout from toxic WTC dust grows
— They were some of 9/11′s biggest names. Where are they now?
— From election to COVID, 9/11 conspiracies cast a long shadow
— Read these stories and more AP coverage of the Sept. 11 anniversary at: https://apnews.com/hub/9-11-a-world-changed.