“9/11 we remember what we lost. 9/12 we remember what we have”.
A university professor who spent 13 years trying to find the people in a wedding shot found at Ground Zero has finally uncovered the original owners of the photograph.
In October 2001, a friend of Professor Elizabeth Stringer Keefe visited Ground Zero in New York, where she found a wedding photo amongst the rubble.
The friend later gave the photo to the Massachusetts professor before moving away, with Stringer Keefe determined to track down the original owners.
Speaking to The Independent, Stringer Keefe said:
“She gave it to me with the request that I do something meaningful with it.
“There’s so much beauty and happiness in the photo, and whatever relationship it had to 9/11, I wanted to care for it until I could return it to its owner. I hope this happens and there’s a happy ending.”
The professor tried in vain every year to identify the six people in the photo, tweeting a scanned copy of the image on every anniversary of the September 11th attacks.
This year when Professor Stringer Keefe tweeted the image, she was overwhelmed by the response:
Every year on #911 I post this photo hoping 2 return 2 owner. Found at #groundzero #WTC in 2001. Pls RT pic.twitter.com/mZ9LdQqE7x
— E. Stringer Keefe (@ProfKeefe) September 12, 2014
The image was retweeted more than 70,000 times, as well as being picked up by Reddit users. The result was incredible, and in 2014 Stringer Keefe finally found the missing owners:
Attention wonderful world: ALL SIX PEOPLE ARE ALIVE AND WELL AND I HAVE JUST SPOKEN TO ONE OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!! #Happyending #911photo
— E. Stringer Keefe (@ProfKeefe) September 12, 2014
Fred Mahe contacted the professor, identifying himself as the person on the left of the photo:
@ProfKeefe I KNOW THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE! I was at the wedding.
— Fred Mahe (@FredWMahe) September 12, 2014
He told the professor that the photo had originally sat on his desk on the 77th floor of Two World Trade Centre. Thanking the professor for all her hard work, Mahe took to his own Twitter account to acknowledge her search after 13 years:
@ProfKeefe 9/11 we remember what we lost. 9/12 we remember what we have. 9/12/01, I saw the best of humanity. Elizabeth is 100% 9/12 #9/12
— Fred Mahe (@FredWMahe) September 13, 2014
