The ending of the recovery process at ground zero was marked by two memorial ceremonies held at the site for the relatives of the victims and the workers who have been sifting through the rubble ever since that terrible day. An empty stretcher draped with an American flag was first carried up a ramp to a waiting ambulance signifying those lost and never found. Following the stretcher, the final steel beam of the WTC that was taken down from the site was covered in black and driven through the crowds of mourners. The workers formed a sorrowful procession behind these two symbols of sadness and loss out of the pit a final time while onlookers applauded their efforts in the past 9 months. What was once a recovery site is now considered a construction site as the city attempts to look forward while still remembering the past.

Twenty five years ago Andy Jurinko and Pat Moore found a rundown open loft across the street from the WTC. They loved the street and the space and imagined their
dream studio and home. After much renovation, they created the space they had hoped for, where Pat made jewelry and Andy painted. On 9/ll their lives changed as the imploding towers blasted through the bank of windows facing the street, turning their apartment into a replica of Pompeii.

When they returned to their home they stood in knee-deep pulverized concrete and asbestos. They would spend the next 9 months in protective Hazmat suits and facemasks slowly, carefully digging out, reclaiming their world and hauling the toxic material pail by pail to dumpsters. They lost almost everything they owned. They are still at it, gently, tediously brushing off every item, then vacuuming it and covering every rescued painting in plastic sheeting. From their windows Pat and Andy have seen the closing ceremonies at ground zero but they don't yet know when they will be able to move back into their home.