Not Forgotten A Mission to Restore the 9/11 Mosaic
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By Patrick Clark, 9/11 Artist
We’re always saying how quickly time flies by. It’s a real paradox though. I’ll run into a customer I made stained glass for back in the day. Their voices, their laughs sound the same, our chat kindles the memories and stories, and it seems like just yesterday. Then I ask about their kids who were in third or fourth grade running around the house as I installed a new window, and they pull out their phones and show pics from the weddings in Bahamas. They’re in their mid-thirties now. And pics of grandchildren.
A couple times every week, my thoughts go back to 9/11. Watching the whole thing unfold from my yard. The tears. The shock and horror. The friends and friends-of-friends who died. The families I met while making the memorials and carving the names. Especially the 30 Breezy families I got to know when interviewing them.
Many years later, after cutting thousands of pieces of glass for the mosaic and dome, I still consider it sacred work. From 9/11 we all grew closer. It defined our Rockaway community and our friendships.
What I was getting at is that it really does feel like yesterday. But here we are, only months from the 25th anniversary. Wow. In 2001, we promised “We Will Never Forget”, and we’ve remained true to that. We have not forgotten.
Thank you, Rockaway, for letting me make these sacred monuments, for you 9/11 families and for us all. It’s been the most important work of my life. Now 25 years later, we renew our commitment to remember. It’s not so hard, because love never dies.
The four-year battle with Parks is finally wrapping up. Soon we will be deep into the work of restoring the Mosaic. We’ve formed the “Conservancy” to raise funds to bring it back to its better than original glory. It’s important work because the memorials help us, and even our grandchildren, to honor and remember them.
I hope you’ll join us at the fundraisers to save this artwork. It will also restore our spirits. We’ll gather at the Park, carry on and tell the stories so our beloved Rockaway kin will live on. Like it was just yesterday.
