On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the family of Barbara Keating will gather for a private burial service in Framingham, Massachusetts, marking the end of a quarter-century wait to lay their loved one to rest.
Keating, who was 72 years old at the time of her death, was aboard American Airlines Flight 11 when al-Qaida-linked terrorists crashed the aircraft into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York. She had been traveling home to California after visiting family when the attack occurred.
Forensic researchers identified her remains last year, allowing her family to finally proceed with burial arrangements that have been on hold since 2001.
"We carved the headstone 25 years ago, but she wasn't there, and now she will be," her son Paul Keating told NPR. "This feels like, at least to some degree, some closure."
Paul Keating recounted the harrowing experience of learning his mother was on the doomed flight. He was conducting business in New Jersey on the morning of the attacks and witnessed the twin towers burning and collapsing from across the water.
"Basically everyone stopped what they were doing, we were like across the water from it, watching it," he told NPR. "At some point, I got a call and found out that that was my mother's plane."
Barbara Keating left behind five children and 12 grandchildren. Before retiring, she had led a chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters, a children's advocacy organization, near Boston. She will be buried beside her husband William.
"She was tough, funny, very smart, she was fabulous," Paul Keating told NPR.
The identification of Barbara Keating's remains represents a small but significant milestone in an ongoing effort that continues to bring closure to families affected by the attacks. According to New York officials, 40 percent of the 2,753 people who died in New York City on September 11 have still not been recovered or positively identified.
Forensic teams continue searching through rubble and debris collected from the World Trade Center site, working to identify roughly 1,100 victims who remain unaccounted for in New York City. Paul Keating expressed gratitude for the painstaking work involved in the identification process.
"It just means a lot to comb over miles and miles of city blocks of debris for every day, 60 hours a week for 24 years," he told NPR.
Dr. Jason Graham, New York City's chief medical examiner, described the identification effort as a sacred obligation in a statement released this week.
"A quarter century after the day that forever changed our world, we are keeping the promise to identify those who died at the World Trade Center in 2001 and return them to their loved ones," Graham said in the statement.
Advances in forensic DNA technology have enabled researchers to continue making identifications decades after the attacks. Last month, investigators identified one additional previously unknown woman, though her name is being withheld at her family's request.
As the nation marks a quarter century since the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil, the Keating family's private service on Friday serves as a poignant reminder that the work of honoring and accounting for the victims continues.
