Across the country Friday, towns and cities solemnly marked 25 years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks – including communities in western Massachusetts.
Two towns in particular continued to commemorate the tragedies and pain felt on that day in 2001 – and the victims with ties to the Pioneer Valley.
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Hundreds of residents once again gathered on West Springfield’s Town Common Friday, surrounding the city’s Eternal Flame Memorial as officials recalled where they were 25 years ago as the attacks commenced – and also memories of a woman with close-ties to West Side.
“We lift up one of our own - Melissa Harrington-Hughes - so comfort her and all the families in their grief, surround them with love, help us to honor the precious lives of those who died, and may they find peace and strength in your presence,” said Pastor Roger Dennis during the ceremony's invocation.
Melissa Harrington-Hughes was 31-years-old and in the World Trade Center’s North Tower when it was struck by a hijacked Boeing 767, which hit the floors just below where she was.
As media outlets reported at the time, she was able to leave a voicemail for her husband Sean - still asleep on the other side of the country in San Francisco - telling him that she loved him.
As several speakers recounted, she was well-loved and well-traveled. Her father, Bob Harrington, told reporters he will always be overjoyed to share his daughter’s memory.
“She loved life and … she lived life. I mean, she was on every continent in the world except for Antarctica. She rode camels in in Morocco. She went to the Munich Beer Festival. She walked on the Great Wall of China. She did, basically, everything that one her age could do, and she loved doing it,” he said. “… just a wonderful life, a wonderful girl.”
As he and others observed, 25 years had passed too quickly. So much so that Friday’s ceremony served not just as an occasion to keep a memory going, like the flame burning atop the memorial that bears Melissa’s name. It also meant reaching out to the younger generations who, as Mayor Will Reichelt said, only know 9/11 as history – and not a lived experience.
“If we truly mean what we say - ‘Never forget’ - then we have to make sure the next generation understands what happened [and] remembers those that we lost, and carries this tradition forward,” he said from the podium. “Eventually, those of us with memories of that day will no longer be here to tell the story, but this monument will be…”
Dozens of Coburn Elementary School students as well as the high school’s marching band were brought in for just that, Reichelt said. The Coburn students also lent a hand rolling up the massive American flag that stood raised above the ceremony by city fire trucks.
Elsewhere in the Pioneer Valley, residents gathered at several spots in Westfield to mark the anniversary.
Events included a ceremonial fly out of F-35s from Barnes Air National Guard Base, replicating the fighter jets scrambled out of the Northeast 25 years ago.
Along a busy intersection, three victims with ties to Westfield were remembered, as well – their names, too, printed onto a special memorial off of North Elm Street.
Family and friends of Tara Shea-Creamer, Brian Murphy and Daniel Trant were on hand. Shea-Creamer was aboard Flight 11 when it struck the North Tower. Murphy and Trant had been at the World Trade Center.
Trant’s brother, Matthew, was direct as he spoke of his family member and other victims – and how they were all robbed of their lives by forces they had no connection to.
“I’ll tell you what happened - my brother was murdered by terrorists at his desk. He had nothing to do with this - nothing to do with this. No politics,” he said, voicing disdain for anyone who, in his eyes, have white-washed the day’s events over the years. “And most of the victims were that way… apolitical.”
“They had nothing to do with this. They weren't combatants, and terrorists murdered them while they were going about their lives,” he continued, before thanking first responders.
Speaking with WAMC, Westfield Mayor Michael McCabe recounted how, when he was still working at the police department, he found himself driving into New York City weeks after the attacks with then-Westfield Public Schools Superintendent Jim Shea, taking in Ground Zero while on a special mission of sorts.
“Jim was a role model of mine and folks knew that I was a native New Yorker – [that I] was very familiar with how to get in and out of the city. So, the chief of police at the time, John Camerota, came to me and he said, ‘Hey, Mike, would you drive myself, the mayor and Jim … would you drive us down to Ground Zero?’” he recalled.
“I said ‘Sure… what do we expect to find there?’ And they told me that Jim wanted to find Tara's wedding ring,” he continued. “So, we went down, and it was just as millions of people have described - there were notes, there were people sobbing at shrines and it was a particularly difficult day. But the odd thing is, somehow, they knew we were from law enforcement, and the entire city applauded, clapped - paid respect. It was… a very strange day.”
Meanwhile, Brian Murphy’s sister, Ann, recalled the last conversation she had with her brother.
“I would like to thank the city of Westfield - its officials, its citizens - who have, year-after-year, provided the support and encouragement to … keep Brian's memory alive,” she said during the ceremony. “I think back … 25 years ago, the last time I heard Brian's voice and we spoke… he was so excited to talk about his daughter who had started preschool, Leila, and his other daughter Jessica, who was starting kindergarten the next day.”
As Ann recounted, Jessica is now completing her last year of medical school and is gunning for emergency medicine, while Leila is a practicing lawyer in New York.
Back in West Springfield, it’s life milestones like those that Lisa Bourque Pellegrini says she was glad to witness when it came to Melissa Harrington-Hughes, her childhood friend.
She tells WAMC their time together goes as far back as youth soccer at the age of five – and that while it’s painful to not be able to share more of life with her, the annual tributes for her and others are something special.
“It’s a wonderful tribute to everybody that has suffered and is suffering and lost their lost their lives,” she said of the ceremony in West Side.
“I'm so glad that Melissa's name on it name is on [the memorial], but I'm truly glad that everybody is here just to remember those that lost their lives…” she said, noting the thousands who have died years afterwards due to complications caused by the attack’s fallout.
Ann Murphy, sister of Brian Joseph Murphy, who was killed at the WTC pic.twitter.com/0O5FbtDeCT
— James Paleologopoulos (@WAMC_J_Paleo) September 11, 2026
