BALTIMORE — Restoring luster to an overgrown garden, volunteers gave of themselves at Clifton Park on the anniversary of 9/11 and paid tribute to Honor Elizabeth Wainio, a 27-year-old rising executive who telephoned her mother from Flight 93 as terrorists were hijacking the plane.
“My friend said to her, ‘Just look out at the sky, because all of us know only that we have maybe our next breath,’ and so they breathed together,” recounted Laurie Lane, a close family friend, “and then Elizabeth said, ‘I have to go Mom, because we’re breaking into the cockpit because they had a plan. They had a person that could land that plane.”
Elizabeth’s mother shared with another friend, Jayna Powell, a wish to honor her daughter in a way, which Civic Works has helped spearhead every year since.
Volunteer work to pay tribute to 9/11 victim from Catonsville
“What I want to remember my daughter and all of them is for… not revenge, but for peace and service and for people to do things to make the world better,” Powell recalled.
Many of the volunteers here were young children or hadn’t even been born at the time of the terrorist attacks 24 years ago, but now they hear of the loss, the courage and the heroism, of Elizabeth and other passengers who sacrificed their lives making sure their plane would never reach the U.S. Capitol, assumed by many to have been its target.
“I felt like they did hear it and I think it’s important when we can to make it personal, because it’s not just an event that happened to someone somewhere,” said Powell, “It happened to the Wainios. It happened to Elizabeth and all of those families.”
A point not lost upon those who feel the loss on the anniversary of the attacks… and every other day of the year.
“I knew Elizabeth probably from the age of 12 or 13 and I loved her very much and miss her,” said Lane, “and I finally now all these years later am able to come and maybe work in honor of her.”
