Memorial weekend for one young 9/11 victim
Family members gather at the World Trade Center site during the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. (Sept. 11, 2011) Credit: AP
They came from Pennsylvania, Ohio, California and other corners of the country -- 75 in all -- to remember one young victim of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Christina Ryook, 25 when she died on the 104th floor of the north World Trade Center tower, was "the most lovely girl. Warm. Charming," recalled her uncle Charles Shin, 69, of Cleveland.
He was one of those who came to Ryook's memorial weekend, which included a massive dinner Saturday night.
Ryook, a Westlake, Ohio native who lived in Manhattan, worked in human resources at Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial firm that lost 658 employees that fateful day. "Family, friends, classmates, children. We're all here," said Shin.
Lauren Woo, a childhood friend of Ryook's who lives in San Diego and helps organize the annual gatherings, said usually about 50 people attend.
But this year, there was a larger turnout and her parents, Dae Jin and Kyung, for the first time visited the newly opened 9/11 memorial in lower Manhattan. There, they used blue crayon to make a rubbing of their daughter's name, Christina Sunga Ryook, as it's inscribed on the memorial.
Sunday afternoon, some members of the memorial party attended a Cantor Fitzgerald-hosted ceremony under a sprawling white tent in Central Park's Rumsey Playfield.
Friends and family wore T-shirts in blue -- the same blue as Ryook's alma mater, University of Michigan -- with the name of the foundation created in Ryook's honor. Shin said the foundation funds "scholarships, charities, libraries, everything, because she was our everything."
