As the United States marks the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the family of Barbara Keating is gathering privately in Framingham, Massachusetts, to lay her to rest. Keating was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11, which was hijacked by al-Qaida terrorists and flown into the north tower of the World Trade Center while she was traveling back to California after visiting relatives. Forensic experts successfully identified her remains last year. Her son, Paul Keating, told NPR that the family is coming together to honor her life, noting that while they prepared her headstone 25 years ago without her, she will finally be there, bringing a measure of closure. On the day of the 2001 attacks, Paul Keating was on a business trip in New Jersey and witnessed the twin towers burning and collapsing from across the water before receiving the phone call informing him that his mother had been on the doomed flight. Barbara Keating was 72 years old, had five children and 12 grandchildren, and had retired from leading a local chapter of the children’s advocacy organization Big Brothers Big Sisters near Boston. She will be buried beside her husband, with her son remembering her as tough, funny, extremely smart, and fabulous. Official data shows that 40% of the 2,753 individuals who perished at the World Trade Center site in New York City remain unidentified or unrecovered, though recovery teams persist in sifting through collected debris. Paul Keating expressed deep gratitude for the enduring dedication required to comb through miles of city rubble for decades. Authorities continue working to account for the roughly 1,100 victims still missing in New York City. Dr. Jason Graham, the city’s chief medical examiner, emphasized in a statement that fulfilling the promise to identify and return the victims to their families remains a sacred commitment a quarter-century after the tragedy. Additionally, advanced DNA profiling allowed researchers to identify another victim last month, though that woman’s identity is being kept private at her family’s request.
Source: npr.org
