Flight attendants left their wings. A visitor left a bag of M&M’s. And there are enough flowers on the ground to fill a botanical garden.
But no one at the new World Trade Center memorial expected the volume of personal notes left behind by friends and families.
In just three weeks, the memorial to victims of 9/11 has become a keeper of mementos, a collection of creative tributes left by heartsick survivors still desperate for the slightest connection.
“We absolutely anticipated that people would feel compelled to leave tributes,” said Alice Greenwald, director of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. “What you don’t know is what people will bring or how they will place it. Some things I find extraordinarily touching.”
For Welles Remy Crowther, 24, an equities trader and volunteer firefighter from Rockland County who died in the south tower, visitors have been leaving red bandannas.
Survivors said Crowther tied a red bandanna around his face and helped nearly 20 people to safety.
Crowther had carried that red bandanna since childhood. It was a gift from his father.
Investment executive Maile Rachel Hale, 26, was remembered by mourners who left a Hawaiian lei and sand from the 50th state, where she was born and raised. Friends and family also left a pair of ballet slippers and a bag of M&M’s, creative tributes to her love of dance and chocolate.
The memorial staff is collecting everything left behind.
Officials are trying to figure out a respectful way of disposing of the flowers. One idea is to mulch them and use them as fertilizer for trees at the site.
But the overwhelming tribute of choice is a simple note on a small piece of paper wedged into the etched letters of a victim’s name.
The notes, in various languages, are being preserved by the museum to document the emotion.
Welles Remy Crowther’s bandanna
The 27-year-old equities trader and volunteer firefighter from Rockland County wrapped a red bandanna around his face and rushed to save people before he was killed. The bandanna was a childhood gift from his father.
Single red rose for Douglas Ketcham
A 27-year-old bond trader for Cantor Fitzgerald, Ketcham was on the 104th floor of the north tower when the first plane hit.
Maile Rachel Hale’s Ballet slippers
The COO of Boston Investor Services was attending a conference at Windows on the World when she was killed. Hale, 26, was born and raised in Hawaii and loved dancing and chocolate.
Pasta necklace for George DiPasquale
DiPasquale, 33, wanted to be an FDNY firefighter since he was 8. During his 10 years with the department, he made numerous rescues and saved people hit by medical emergencies.
Single flower for Sean Hanley
The 35-year-old firefighter had just gotten off duty when he rushed to Ground Zero. Hanley’s father, brother and grandfather all retired from the department. His other grandfather was killed in the line of duty.