Bedford Park 9/11 Memorial In The Spotlight

In Sheepshead Bay, there exists few more deserving subjects of a spotlight then the Brooklyn/Bedford Park 9/11 Memorial, splattered upon a handball court on Avenue X and Bedford Avenue.

We’ve covered memorial events at the park before (here, here and here), and scribbled superficially about the wall’s and memorial committee’s creation. But Robert Fieseler, a student journalist at Columbia University’s Brooklyn Ink, recently published a full-on rundown of the memorial wall and the cast of characters that give it its heart.

Here’s an excerpt from the website:

According to Fiore, he put brush to paint after volunteering in “the Pit” at Ground Zero. Digging his work gloves into the rubble of the buildings on September 12, Fiore said he felt the touch of God. It’s a touch, he insists, that gave him the inspiration to paint the mural.

“I couldn’t do nothing for people that were already dead,” said Fiore, “so I had to do this.” On September 17, 2001, he loaded up on buckets of paint and headed to the handball court. It’s a mission that Fiore repeats like praying. Among the names regularly retouched is Lucy Fishman, 37, an executive secretary who worked for the Aon Corporation on the 105th floor of Tower Two.

Fishman received the same depiction as James Coyle: traced in red, printed in blue. Her sister, Mary Dwyer, 43, and mother, Mary Bracken, 69, are also members of the memorial committee. “We haven’t forgotten these people’s names on the wall,” said Dwyer, who buried the thighbone and femur of her sister. “Not hers. Not ever. As long as we have that wall, we’ll be here.”

Supporting “Mary and Mary” serves as the driving motivation for memorial committee members. Through the committee, Errante, Gray and Dwyer developed into close friends. “This is not why people should meet,” said Gray. “I would give up these friendships if it meant that Mary and Mary had Lisa back.”

The Brooklyn/Bedford Park  9/11 Memorial Committee will host its 10th annual ceremony on September 11  from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.