Many said that the two beams—meant to represent the two towers of the Trade Center—served as a physical symbol of the devastation in New York.
“It’s hard to believe that they could break,” said Stephen S. Brokaw ’06.
For John P. Kiernan, a New Yorker who said he knew many who died on Sept. 11, the vigil was only one of a series of painful remembrances.
“It brings up hard emotions that had been successfully suppressed,” he said.
But at the end of the evening, tears gave way to hugs and sighs of relief.
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“There was an emptiness inside,” said Catherine P. Walker ’06, “but now the hole is filled.”
—Staff writer Jessica E. Vascellaro can be reached at vascell@fas.harvard.edu.