SukritiWho Were These People?
Who were these people? Were they all alive and doing fine? Or did anyone of them got stuck in the tragedy like thousands of victims? These questions used to disturb Elizabeth. Will she ever be able to know what happened the people in the photograph? Was the couple who got married even alive?
Jennie Left
In October 2001, Jennie was about to move permanently to California. A week before she was leaving New York City, she called Elizabeth to take the photo they found on Ground zero. Elizabeth knew the importance of this picture and she was ready to take the responsibility. “I visited New York City, the World Trade Center site and my friend Jennie, who lived in New York City at the time of attacks. She found the photo at Ground Zero in the days after the attacks, but was leaving New York City for a permanent move to California,” recalled Elizabeth.
Huge Responsibility
“She gave it to me with the request that I do something meaningful with it,” said Elizabeth. Jennie wanted to be certain that the only person who’ll be “persistent” in searching for this photo’s owner or at least their family members. What Elizabeth didn’t know at this point was the change that this picture will bring in her life.
Beautiful Connection
“There’s so much beauty and happiness in the photo, and whatever relationship it had to 9/11, I wanted to care for it until I could return it to its owner,” recalled Elizabeth. But for 13 years she found no one with whom this picture was related even after her efforts.
Enormous Posts
Since Facebook and Twitter became normal, Elizabeth tried using it as a medium. Every year on 9/11 she posted a scanned copy of the wedding photograph her friend found at ground zero. But the photo never reached out of her family and friends circle. They knew it meant a lot to her and they even shared the photograph further but it didn’t seem to be helping at all.
Always In Her Pocket
People carry photos of their loved ones in their wallet but Elizabeth carried this photograph with her even when all the persons in the picture were strangers to her. “Sometimes I would check on it just to make sure it was still there. I’ve always had the same feeling about it; for me, there is something very familiar about these strangers. And there’s so much joy in the photo, which is in such striking contrast with what I saw at Ground Zero,” she said later on.