RELATED STORIES

• Week's NM News Roundup

More Local

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
• Former Marine to serve two years in jail for killing Albuquerque robber
• Wilson-Pearce battle for U.S. Senate exemplifies party's disparity

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

Michael Matthews grabbed the top of the twisted steel beam in the Barelas church and looked up as he listened to his wife, Geri Lynn Matthews, talk about how the couple returned to their native New York City after Sept. 11, 2001.

Albuquerque transplants for about 20 years, they drove back to New York six days after the attacks to help.

"This is the first anniversary that I think I'm allowing myself to feel things," said Geri Lynn Matthews, 49, a social worker who helped firefighters on Long Island deal with emotional problems in the weeks following the attack.

"I still feel kind of numb."

Sunday was the first time the pair visited the Sept. 11 memorial at Sacred Heart Catholic Church at 412 Stover Ave. S.W. in Barelas.

The memorial bell tower, added in late 2001, includes a 20-foot-long beam and girder from one of the World Trade Center towers. With the extent of the damage, nobody is sure which tower or what floor they came from, said Deacon Tom Perez.

"When I see the beams, I'm always reminded of that horrible day," Perez said. "We constantly have people coming here that say `My cousin was there' or `I was there.' This is a prayerful setting for them to remember."

Soon after the attacks, members of the church asked New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani if they could have a remnant to add to their bell tower, which was under construction, Perez said.

"When the destruction happened in New York and they lost a tower, we were trying to build a tower," Perez said. "There was symbolism there. Little did we know that we would become one of the few communities in the country to have an actual beam and girder."

Sanchez flipped through the guest book to show how the remnants have lured people with addresses in Guatemala and Mexico alongside American cities in Texas, California, Washington state and Illinois.

"You just hope that nothing like this will happen again, that we'll be able to learn," Sanchez said.

Having a remembrance from the tragedy in Albuquerque makes Michael Matthews feel a little less isolated, but the memories are still raw and fresh.

"It's emotional - very emotional," he said. "My father is a deceased New York City firefighter. It's family."

His father died before the attacks, but Matthews, 52, said he remembers growing up hanging out in firehouses, drinking coffee with his father's co-workers, some of whom were killed on Sept. 11.

"I remember when we drove back to New York after the attacks, I wanted to cross the bridge at night," said the retired Kirtland Air Force airman tearfully. "I didn't want to look to my right" to see the gaping landscape where the Trade Center towers had once been.

On Sunday, the couple wore yellow ribbons on their shirts clasped with pins that read "343" for the number of firefighters killed that day.

They said more have died or will probably die from breathing in particles and dust for weeks after the attacks.

"All those people in the dust that day - they got death certificates," Michael Matthews said, clutching his father's firefighter badge, which he always wears on a chain around his neck.

Several parishioners wandered into the memorial after Sunday's 11 a.m. Mass to touch the beams and read victims' names on a large plaque.

"It's amazing just to see the twisting of the beams," said Stella Sanchez, 37, who's attended the church for 10 years. "How something like that can happen and how devastating it is - it makes you feel lucky for your friends and family just to be here."

Michael Garcia, 39, a former office manager at the church, said he's proud to see the remembrance in Albuquerque.

"I think it's a great memorial for what happened," Garcia said. "It reminds people that things can change in an instant, and we shouldn't forget."