In Time of Grief, Walking to Heal the Wounds

The Rev. Bill Minson, right, spoke yesterday before the remembrance walk that began at the Iwo Jima Memorial. Patricia Russell, left, Johniece Brooks and Bhola, Danita and Basmattie Bishundat participated. (By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)

Five years later, Dana Horning still wishes she could sleep through the month of September. She cannot get over losing her brother. That is why she walks.

Horning was one of about a dozen people who gathered yesterday at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington for an intimate walk to honor those lost in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the survivors.

The annual "We Remember Walk," one of dozens of commemorative events this month, brings together families and survivors from Washington and New York.

For the past four years, Horning has joined other families at the Iwo Jima Memorial to honor her brother, Matthew Horning, 26, and the nearly 3,000 others who were killed in the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Horning, an Arlington elementary school teacher, was in class when she learned that her brother, a database administrator for Marsh & McLennan Cos., was at his office in the trade center's North Tower when a hijacked plane slammed into it.

It is hard to grieve. It is even harder to grieve in public, when the eyes of the entire nation seem to be upon you. The Rev. Bill Minson, who helped organize yesterday's walk, said the Pentagon and World Trade Center families needed a chance to share their experiences in a more informal setting.

"It's a remarkable thing to see these families coming together," said Minson, a Baptist minister based in Santa Monica, Calif. "It really means a lot of healing."

Although just over 200 miles separate the New York and Washington families, the annual walk, which ended with a prayer service at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove, has brought them closer and reunited them with others there to comfort them.

Mario and Karen Canzoneri traveled with their four golden retrievers to the District from Staten Island, N.Y., to reunite with Horning and others who bonded with the dogs as part of a therapeutic program aimed at helping survivors cope with the trauma of the attacks.

"My mom was inconsolable for days afterward, but when the dogs came up to her, she started smiling and laughing," Horning said.

Now Horning looks forward to the annual reunion with Mattie, the 4-year-old retriever the Canzoneris named in honor of her brother. But the wounds have not healed.

"It's hard to imagine time moving forward without him," said Horning, 29.

Time also seems to stand still for those who escaped from the Pentagon and their families. Johniece Brooks, 55, nearly lost her daughter when American Airlines Flight 77 blazed a fiery path through the outer rings of the Pentagon. As she chatted with a friend near the foot of the Iwo Jima Memorial yesterday, she recalled how her daughter, Racquel Kelley, now 37, was badly burned and took months to recover.

Kelley, a mother of four who lives in Maryland, still works as a civilian computer technician in the Army's Information Management Support Center. When the hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon, the impact knocked the shoes off of Kelley's feet. As she tried to flee the destruction, her feet were badly cut and she was burned on her hands, face and feet.

"I keep on thinking about how close to death she came," Brooks said.

Brooks, who has participated in many commemorative events with her daughter since the attacks, said yesterday's walk was a chance to connect with families and survivors who shared the terror of that day.

"Being with people who have gone through it is a kind of healing thing," Brooks said. "Sometimes it's just very helpful to be together."