Berry says that she has found her work on the memorial site to be incredibly rewarding and unparalleled in its healing power.
“It’s so addictive and interesting. In many ways it has been incredibly cathartic to get myself engaged in something like this. This is how we respond to something like this and it is a very noble response,” Berry says.
Berry also says that working on the memorial with so many dedicated individuals has strengthened her faith in the potential of human beings.
“You see the best in people in their effort to rise to this situation. I have seen human capacity in the most wonderful of ways,” Berry says.
But the planning of the memorial is still just one part of Berry’s life, as her children are her number one priority. As she discusses the plans for the Freedom Center, Berry says her seven-year-old son enters the kitchen donning a sticker on his stomach that reads “put food in me.”
Berry also says that her three sons have already expressed interest in attending either Harvard or Yale, or “the two best schools in the country.”
As Berry begins preparing lunch for her son, she says that she no longer makes long-term plans but prefers to take things one step at a time.
“I see into the future, but I don’t make long range plans anymore,” Berry says. “It’s a day by day kind of thing.”
—Staff writer Evan M. Vittor can be reached at evittor@fas.harvard.edu.