By Nick Buglione
Hope and a renewed sense of community have sprouted from the rubble of ground zero, where nearly 3,000 people lost their lives two years ago, three of whom were from East Meadow.
Members of the community, including scores of residents both young and young at heart, veterans, firefighters, clergy members, educators, civic leaders and elected officials, gathered at the East Meadow town square last Thursday for what could have turned out to be a somber remembrance of the attacks.
But it wasn't.
In the moments before the ceremony, an air of exuberance and optimism hung over the crowd. Parents chatted and joked as children wandered around the newly christened meeting place with eyes fixed on the swirling concrete paths of personalized bricks, searching for the one with their family's name on it.
Lifelong East Meadow resident Mike Brussel, 45, said he has definitely noticed a change in the neighborhood over the past two years. I think everybody's really gotten stronger, we're unified, he said. Everybody's pulling together and pitching in and helping each other out.
Having lost her husband, Carlos, in the attacks, East Meadow resident Maureen Dominguez and her three young children usually avoid the larger Sept. 11 memorials. But we always come to the community events, she said.
In the weeks, months and years since her husband's death, East Meadow has embraced and supported Dominguez, and that's something she will be eternally grateful for, she said. The community's wonderful, she said. We're definitely staying in the community because they've been very supportive and wonderful.
Those who spoke during the East Meadow memorial ceremony offered only positive words, focusing on the good that has come out of a horrific tragedy. The Rev. Prem Carlose, of St. Raphael's Roman Catholic Church, was in the World Trade Center just one day before the attacks. Sept. 10, 2001, I was having my breakfast at the World Trade Center from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., he said. The next very day, I was grateful, shocked, in pain, in sorrow. For two years I lived with the shock, and today God enabled me to see beyond. To see beyond the pain. To see the happiness. To see beyond the evil.
In the two years since the day of great sadness in East Meadow, the community has been infused with a sense of civic pride and duty, said Richard Bivone, vice president of the Council of East Meadow Community Organizations. CEMCO was one of the memorial event organizers, along with the Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis and the East Meadow Fire Department.
We believe that after two years of this, our community is even stronger now than it was in the past, Bivone said. Having this type of remembrance in East Meadow just brings the people together.
Nassau County Legislator Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) echoed Bivone. Thousands of people were killed, families were destroyed, Gonsalves said. But we look to today and we see families have come together, communities come together. This East Meadow community has always come together, and tonight is living testimony that, if nothing else, it has made us stronger.
When the sun had set and the brief ceremony was coming to a close, the town square was illuminated with candlelight. Four memorial wreaths were placed at the Sept. 11 monument near the square's entrance, which was dedicated in July.
