Jean Nebbia, far right, a schoolteacher from Oakland, New Jersey, prepares to join a tour group visiting the Sept. 11 memorial site, Thursday Aug. 11, 2016, in New York. Nebbia joined volunteer-guided tours, organized by the private nonprofit 9/11 Tribute Center, to tell tours about her brother Steven Schlag, a partner at Cantor Fitzgerald, who was killed in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)NEW YORK (AP) – For almost a decade after her brother was killed on 9/11, Jeanmarie Hargrave avoided the World Trade Center. Being there was “too emotional, too sad.”
But five years ago, she tried a different way of grieving. She joined a group of about 800 people touched personally by the attacks who now lead tours of the Sept. 11 memorial plaza.
The guides, who include attack survivors, rescue and recovery workers and people who lost a loved one, give visitors the soul-stirring experiencing of walking through the rebuilt complex with people who came face to face with the attack and its aftermath.
And in return, guides like Hargrave, of Maplewood, New Jersey, get an emotional outlet.
At first, she said, “I had a very difficult time telling my personal story. I would cry through the whole thing.” But that soon changed.