FRAMINGHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - As the nation reflects on the decades since the Twin Towers fell, people who were there that day are sharing their stories.
Katie Murphy and her sister rushed to the World Trade Center in the days right after 9/11 to search for their 38-year-old brother Charlie who worked as a securities trader in the building.
By Sept. 13, the fires were still burning and a massive cloud still hung low over Manhatten.
Murphy, a nurse, said she felt compelled to be there and to this day she still remembers standing in the rubble.
“Shattered walls and windows,” she recalled. “We were stepping through the windows of Goldman Sachs to walk into the pit.”.
Staring at the destruction, the sisters quickly realized they would not find Charlie alive.
“We took a moment to react that our brother Charlie had not survived and that we were looking at the final resting place and we didn’t know how many people at that point,” she said.
They helped as best they could by working at a high school that had been converted into a mobile field hospital and at an eye-washing station to help clear debris from the eyes of first responders.
Murphy said in his 38 years of life, their brother made a big impact.
“Loved to played golf, love to go apple picking, was the center of the party at holidays, loved telling jokes and making everyone feel included,” she said of Charlie. “Just a super guy.”
For her, the events of that tragic day and the loss of her brother are never far from her mind. Murphy spends every anniversary at Ground Zero and as a former Framingham selectman, she helped the city create a 9/11 memorial in Cushing Park dedicated to the victims.
“Decades from now people who were born after 9/11 can walk by and see these names and reflect on these people who were loved,” she said.
When Murphy visits Ground Zero this year, she will not only be honoring the life of her brother who was killed in the attacks but also her sister who was with her in New York City 20-years-ago.
Her ashes are also at Ground Zero.
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