Staff and residents at Birmingham Health Center in Derby took part in a solemn service Thursday to remember the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Thursday was the 13th anniversary of the attacks on United States soil.
The nursing facility’s administrator, Bob Guastella, led a moving ceremony at the flagpole in front of the building at 210 Chatfield St.
“9/11 has become my generation’s Pearl Harbor,” he said.
Guastello said he wanted to hold the service “to remember the 2,792 victims and heroes that perished on Sept. 11 and to reflect upon the lives lost” in subsequent U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“We have a lot of veterans here from World War II and the Korean War and it’s important to them,” he said.
Guastello read a timeline of the four terrorist attacks that occurred that September morning at the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pa.
After each attack was described, nursing home residents rang bells in unison, followed by two minutes of silence.
U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Matthew Sheridan of Ansonia was on hand in dress uniform to raise the flag after each of the four attacks was detailed.
“It was a privilege and an honor to do this,” Sheridan said afterward.
Sheridan’s wife, Angela, is food service director at the nursing home.
After the flag was raised the group sang “Amazing Grace,” accompanied by Bill Walach on the mandolin.
Brad Smythe, a deacon at St. Joseph Church in Shelton, said, “We must grow quiet enough to feel God’s comforting presence.”
The group sand “The Star Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America.”
Resident John Parker, a Bridgeport native, displayed a collected of newspapers that he saved since September 2001.
“Connecticut is said to be the least patriotic state in the country,” he said. “It’s about time we become one of the best. And may we never forget.”
