Juniper Hill residents remember 9/11 tragedy

STORRS — On September 11, program manager at Juniper Hill, Eileen Doughty, created a display for residents to honor the day.

"I made a display table of photos from 9/11 for our residents so that we could have a small remembrance of that tragic day," Doughty said.

One resident, George Kerr, had four newspapers to add to the table: one of the towers, the Pentagon, a write-up on Flight 93 and another of the towers.

Doughty printed photos of the blue lights shining into the sky where the towers once stood as well as the Memorial pool with all the victims' names engraved on it.

"We all knew what happened that day, so I was trying to keep it a bit lighter for them," Doughty shared with the Chronicle.

Another resident of Juniper Hill, Ginger Carvell, brought a book she had that featured hundreds of photos of that day. The table was decorated with red, white and blue stars with 19 residents gathered together to honor heroes.

Doughty shared a printed copy of the lyrics to Alan Jackson's song "Where were you when the world stopped turning" and resident Pat Brassington accepted the honor of reading it to everyone.

Brassington added her own story to conclude the event about her nephew who was supposed to be there that morning for a meeting, however, it was a breakfast meeting so they moved it to a local restaurant.

Another resident, Phyllis Engel, stood up and told her story of her son who worked at the Pentagon, the section where the plane crashed into. Her son was sent to Texas the day before for duty with five other soldiers.

When Engel saw the news on the television that day she immediately called her daughter-in-law who told Phyllis he had been sent to Texas the day prior.

"I dropped to my knees and just cried, how blessed was he that day," she said.

Her son and the other soldiers were told to rent a car and get back to the Pentagon as soon as possible.

"I lived in New York at that time, my neighbor across the street was a 20-year-old kid who worked as a security guard in tower one," resident Joe Toto said. "The kid called his mother from the building to tell her he was fine and then the building collapsed. They lost their son."

Doughty emphasized the residents were so touched by all the stories shared that day.

"You could feel the bonding between all of us that day," Doughty said.